For want of a nail, the kingdom was lost,” goes the old proverb. So too, it turns out that an ongoing citywide epidemic of Divvy bike thefts is the result of a short-sighted decision to remove a small but critical piece of security hardware from Chicago’s docking stations.
Last week when I asked CDOT and Divvy for an update on the theft problem, Divvy general manager Michael Critzon e-mailed me the exact same statement I was sent more than two months ago, suggesting that the situation is under control.
In a subsequent e-mail exchange, transportation chief Rebekah Scheinfeld asked assistant commissioner Sean Wiedel, who oversees the Divvy program, and CDOT consultant Amanda Woodall, who works on bike-share policy issues, why GPS hasn’t been installed on Divvies. Woodall responded that while real-time tracking of each bike’s location would help locate cycles after they’ve gone missing, “we wouldn’t have the capacity to launch investigations on each bike and prevent crimes from being committed with them. The way to solve this problem is to prevent thefts in the first place.”
Luc Sabbatini, the CEO of PBSC, fired back that the Divvy program had been mismanaged. “The Chicago situation is unique to Chicago,” he wrote. “We do not have issues with missing bikes anywhere else, including Brazil, which could be the toughest market in the world. As of August 26th we only have seven bikes missing for a long period within all our systems around the world, when the number is over 500 in Chicago alone!”
“We are in constant communication with Divvy to help, but our message has always been the same: fix the [component] and follow our documentation and recommendations on proper maintenance.”
John Greenfield edits the transportation news website Streetsblog Chicago.
