Divvy’s future wasn’t looking so bright a year ago, when the city of Chicago acknowledged it had seen a major drop in income from the bike-share system in 2016, after the program expanded farther into the south and west sides. But numbers I recently obtained from the Chicago Department of Transportation via a Freedom of Information Act request paint a much rosier picture, showing that 2017 was the city’s most lucrative year yet for Divvy revenue. Moreover, the explanation for the turnaround bodes well for the system’s long-term viability.
As a result, costs grew. In 2016 Divvy saw its worst-ever operations loss (the cost of running the system subtracted from the income generated by annual memberships, day passes, and late fees): a whopping $1,756,420. Per the terms of CDOT’s contract with Motivate, the city had to pay $752,011 to cover its share of that red ink.
The combined income from ads, sponsorship, and operations revenue last year was $11,642,414.
Wiedel noted that ridership has been solid in 2018, with 3,439,237 Divvy trips logged as of November 8. That means the system is on track to rack up roughly the same number of rides as last year—3,836,905—by New Year’s Day, even when you factor in the drop-off in bike-share use as the weather grows colder, he said.
