CHICAGO — After just three weeks in operation, the city's new bike-sharing program was the busiest in the world Saturday, officials said.
The Chicago Department of Transportation, which released the latest statistics concerning Divvy Bike rentals Tuesday, said that based on the percentage of available bikes in use, the program was more heavily used than other bike-share programs in New York, Taipei and Rio de Janeiro.
As of Saturday Chicago had 750 bikes in its system, compared to New York's (Citi Bike) 4,100, Taipei's (You Bike) 1,400 and Rio de Janeiro's (Bike Rio) 300.
The city quoted an analysis by researchers at the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis at University College London in making the claim.
Other stats tell the story of an increasingly popular bike-sharing program, officials said:
- More than 50,000 trips have been taken by Divvy riders since the program was introduced on June 28.
- 75 percent of those trips were taken by riders who chose the 24-hour pass option, at a cost of $7.
- More than 3,000 riders have signed up for a yearly membership, which costs $75.
- Divvy riders have logged a collective 150,000 miles in the three-week period.
Divvy plans to unveil an additional 40 stations throughout the city this week, and hopes to have more than 300 stations and 3,000 bikes available for use by the end of the summer, officials said.