State, suburbs double down on Divvy

Chicago’s Divvy bikes will soon be pedaled down suburban streets. On Sept. 29, Gov. Pat Quinn approved a $3 million state grant expanding the bike-share program to the suburbs of Evanston and Oak Park, while adding 50 new docking stations to Chicago’s Garfield Park, Austin, Rogers Park and West Rogers park neighborhoods. Seven hundred new...

Chicago’s Divvy bikes will soon be pedaled down suburban streets.

On Sept. 29, Gov. Pat Quinn approved a $3 million state grant expanding the bike-share program to the suburbs of Evanston and Oak Park, while adding 50 new docking stations to Chicago’s Garfield Park, Austin, Rogers Park and West Rogers park neighborhoods. Seven hundred new bikes and 70 docking stations will be added in total.

While some will be glad to see the familiar blue bikes ride into their neighborhood, the facts remain the same: Chicago is overpaying for Divvy.

The $3 million grant is on top of the $6.25 million that Chicagoans already fronted in startup costs for the program. Plus, taxpayers in Evanston, Oak Park and Chicago will be ponying up an additional $750,000 as part of the approved expansion. Other Midwestern hubs, such as Milwaukee and Madison, Wis., have established successful bike-share programs with little to no public funding whatsoever.

But confusion surrounding the grant’s approval goes beyond mere cost concerns.

As Kim Janssen of the Chicago Sun-Times noted, a seemingly identical proposal was denied by state government back in May. Illinois’ financial woes haven’t improved since then, so one wonders what factors were taken into account this time around.

Expansion of a bike-share program amidst a fiscal crisis should be scrutinized. But it’s worthwhile to note that Divvy’s public subsidy comes in at a paltry 10 cents per ride, according to StreetsBlog Chicago. The Chicago Transit authority, or CTA, on the other hand, runs on a per-trip subsidy of $1.26.

In other words, a Chicagoan would have to use a Divvy bike more than a dozen times before they cost the city as much as one ride on the CTA. This mismatch is due, in part, to the fact that two-thirds of the CTA’s operating budget is consumed by bloated labor costs.

While there are certainly bigger fish to fry when it comes to transportation spending in Chicago, Divvy shouldn’t get a free pass on cost-efficiency.