Most people will probably first interact with Divvy through a one-day pass (why would you buy a $75 pass before trying it once for $7?). My experience was no exception. I first tried Divvy through a one-day pass on Wednesday and this post will describe what to expect and my personal experience.
If you walk up to a Divvy station with bikes available (if you see bikes they are available) you will be able to rent a bike in a matter of minutes with a credit card. Every Divvy station has a kiosk with a touch screen. It is self-explanatory. You must use the kiosk to rent a bike on a one-day pass. The bike stations look like maybe you can just stick a credit card in the slot by the bike but it doesn't work that way. At the kiosk you can choose to rent either one or two bikes at a time (for more you'll have to start a separate transaction). There are a lot of screens to go through so it does take a minute. When I got my bikes on Wednesday there was a line and I went through all the prompts before it told me it couldn't read my credit card so it was a bit annoying but it is a pretty simple system. When you are done you will be given a code (or two codes if you chose to rent two bikes). The code(s) will be displayed on the screen but you will automatically be given a printed receipt as well with the code(s) so don't worry about instantly memorizing what you see on the screen.
Code in hand, you can go up to any bike in the station and once you punch in the code you'll hear the dock unlock and see a green light displayed. You can then pull the bike back and out of the dock. This takes a somewhat forceful pull so be careful where you are standing relative to the pedals. (I have a small bruise on my shin since I failed to do that.)
Once you have the bike removed from the dock you really only need to do one thing: adjust the seat. It's a quick release and only takes a second. A quick rule of thumb is to set it about level with your hip but when you're riding you generally want your leg to be almost fully extended when the pedal is at its lowest point. I'll discuss the bikes in more detail in another post, but there's nothing else to adjust.
I rented a bike right in front of Millennium Park. There were about 10 bikes available at that time and I rented two (one for the wifey as well). There is an area to strap on a bag in a front basket-like contraption in front of the handlebars. The wifey and I each had a bag and they strapped on securely in that front contraption.
Our plan was to ride to the station around the corner from the Damen Blue Line stop but by the time we got our bags on, adjusted our seats and went through the congestion and poorly timed lights in the loop, we ate through about half our time. So to play it safe we stopped at a station off Milwaukee just NW of the highway. The station had a handful of empty docks and we each docked our bikes so we could reset our 30 minute timer. (If you don't already know, Divvy only lets you borrow a bike for 30 minutes at one time. With a 24-hour pass you can use as many 30-minute increments as you want in that 24-hour period but if you fail to dock a bike within 30 minutes of when you borrow it you are charged a penalty.)
Getting a new bike is easy. You first have to dock your old bike and this requires that you push the front tire into the dock with a fair amount of force. I found it easiest to line up the tire and then shove it in from the handlebars or stem. Once you get it in there you'll see a yellow light as the dock begins to lock the front wheel and then a green light when the lock is completed.
Now your old code is garbage as soon as you use it. To borrow another bike you have to go to the touch screen kiosk and select the option to borrow another bike. To do this you'll be required to insert the same credit card you used when you borrowed the bike. If you initially borrowed two bikes (like I did) then the kiosk will ask whether you want to take out one or two bikes again. (So if you and your companion plan to utilize the 24-hour pass at different times when you might not be there with the original credit card, best to first rent the bikes individually under your separate credit cards.) You'll then get a new code and you borrow another bike the same way as the first time. Nothing prevents you from using the code on the same bike you just returned. You now have another 30 minutes.
Unfortunately, when we got to Pierce and Damen (the station by the Damen Blue Line stop), the station was totally full. Someone was also already there with a bike looking for a spot. Here is where you can get another free 15 minutes added on. To do that you have to go to the kiosk and follow the prompts. One thing the kiosk sadly does NOT do is tell you where around you there are open docks. I have a third-party iPhone app so I could see where there were stations close by but the guy already at the station had to call Divvy to find out. Eventually there should be so many stations hopefully this won't be an issue but if you're in a hurry you could suddenly have to add another 10 minutes to time it takes to return the bike. (The app I've been using is called Chicago Bike. Divvy recommends using an app called Cycle Finder that I recently downloaded but haven't used yet. However, all reviews of these apps on the App Store and through Facebook comments on Divvy's page indicate that they are woefully inaccurate.)
The iPhone app which is called Chicago Bike and is free, shows you where all the stations are and when working properly tells you how many bikes and empty docks there are at a given station. (Sometimes that information isn't available and it just shows "?".) So right now, for instance, the app tells me that the Damen and Pierce station has 4 bikes available and 15 free docks.
With that station full, we had to ride to the station at Wood and Milwaukee, a few minutes down Milwaukee from Damen. The station had a number of empty docks and we returned the bikes.
We started our 24-hour pass at about 8:00 p.m. and the following day I needed to get from one corner of the loop to the other at around 5:00 p.m. I figured I would just use a Divvy bike since I looked at the station map and saw that there were stations right by my starting and ending points. I went to the corner of Franklin and Jackson to get a bike but the station was entirely empty. In the future there should be a number of other stations close by but right now they are all a number of clocks away so that was a disappointment. Of course, when the iPhone app actually has info on bikes and docks at each station, I can check in advance.
I have more thoughts on the bikes and other aspects of my experience, but that's for another time. So there you have it. My first experience with Divvy and using a 24-hour pass.
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