Divvy expanding to Far South Side

Larry Johnson, 50, rides a Divvy bike to run errands Thursday morning near his Chatham neighborhood home on the South Side. | Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times

Chicago’s bike share program, known as Divvy, will be expanding into the Far South Side with the addition of 66 Divvy stations, city officials announced Thursday.

The new stations will expand the bike program by nearly 60 square miles, according to Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s office.

The expansion kicks off Thursday with the installation of a Divvy station at 83rd Street and Stewart Avenue in the Chatham neighborhood.

It’s part of a push to bring Divvy to every neighborhood by 2021. The expansion will include the addition of 10,500 new electric-assist bikes.

Divvy has 6,000 bikes, and its 600 docking stations are accessible by about two-thirds of the city’s population and contained within about half of the city’s geography.

Under the expansion plan, Lyft, which runs the Divvy program for the city, is making a $50 million investment in new bikes, stations and hardware.

An annual Divvy membership costs $99 and allows an unlimited number of rides of 45 minutes or less.

The Divvy for Everyone program provides heavily discounted, $5 membership for qualifying Chicagoans, including those without credit or debit cards.

The Chicago Department of Transportation is also adding 16.5 miles of new bike lanes on the Far South Side. The city already has 280 miles of on-street bikeways.

A Divvy bike station at West 83rd Street and South Stewart Avenue on the South Side, Thursday morning, July 16, 2020.

A Divvy bike station at West 79th and South State Streets on the South Side, Thursday morning, July 16, 2020.