Last Thursday Chicago officers introduced three main items of micromobility information. First, the metropolis’s first everlasting e-scooter rental program will probably be launching in May with a complete of three,000 privately-owned electrical scooters provided by Lime, Spin, and Superpedestrian. Second, the publicly-owned Divvy system will probably be getting in on the motion by deploying a further 1,000 e-scooters that may be docked at present Divvy stations (or, like the different scooters, locked to bike racks or poles by way of built-in cable locks), focusing on downtown areas. Third, Divvy is altering its pricing construction, together with eliminating the price waiver zones west of Western Avenue (2400 W.) and south Pershing Road (3900 S.), the place there’s at the moment no further per-minute surcharge or non-dock parking price whenever you use the electrical bikes (which may also be locked on racks and poles because of built-in locks.)
That final merchandise raised some purple flags. Divvy station density is usually decrease in the waiver zone than the price zone east of Western and north of Pershing, and all of the new stations positioned in outlying neighborhoods final yr have been “E-stations,” principally glorified bike rack installations the place it’s not potential to park the blue non-electric bikes. Therefore, in a lot of the present waiver zone, together with many lower-income Black and Latino communities, residents principally don’t have any selection however to make use of the black or grey e-bikes, and it appeared they must have to start out paying further charges to make use of them. Since locations are usually farther aside on the South and West sides, these Chicagoans are additionally extra more likely to rack up extra minutes on bikes than folks downtown and in denser North Side neighborhoods. That sparked fairness issues.
Also regarding was an Active Transportation Alliance weblog put up that initially appeared to say Divvy e-bike use charges for members can be rising steeply, together with for lower-income folks enrolled in the Divvy for Everyone (D4E) $5 membership program. (The revenue restrict for D4E in Chicago is $35,310 for a single particular person.) While the present e-bike surcharges in the price zone are 20 cents a minute for non-members and 15 cents a minute for members, ATA acknowledged, “Non members will pay… 39 cents per minute and members will pay 25 cents per minute.” The group later deleted that passage and clarified that that they had been speaking about the new scooters, not e-bikes, and they nonetheless weren’t completely certain the numbers have been correct. So there was loads of confusion about the new pricing construction.
Fortunately, Divvy bought again to me as we speak with full details about how the new value system, which can kick in when the scooters launch subsequent month, will work. The metropolis says the pricing construction is “simplified” in that you just’ll not want to fret about whether or not you’re driving in the price or waiver zone. But as you’ll be able to see from the chart I threw collectively under (the new costs are highlighted in yellow), it’s nonetheless fairly sophisticated.
I nonetheless haven’t fully wrapped my head round the new system but. But my preliminary impression is that, because of the e-bike surcharges for D4E members remaining low, plus some further adjustments meant to melt the blow of the elimination of the waiver zone, the adjustments don’t current main fairness points. Still, the metropolis may have saved native bike advocates some elevated blood strain in the event that they’d simply launched all these details after they introduced the that there can be a new price construction, proving as soon as once more that communication with the public is essential.
In addition, whereas some local cyclists who read the initial ATA post balked at the prospect of a 25-cents-per-minute e-bike surcharge for normal members, arguing that made the system to costly to be value utilizing, it seems the present 15-cents-a-minute surcharge is just going up a penny a minute. So that’s in all probability not going to vary driving habits a lot, no less than inside the present price zone. That’s the place about 83 % of rides took in 2021, based on Jordan Levine, a spokesperson for Lyft, the Divvy concessionaire.
Let’s stroll by means of a few of the extra notable elements of the pricing adjustments, by kind of membership or move.
Regular annual membership
The present $99 yearly price for normal memberships is rising by 20 %, to $119. While Lyft’s present contract with the metropolis of Chicago requires them to get approval from the Chicago Department of Transportation for value hikes better than 10 % per yr, Levine merely acknowledged, “The new pricing structure is being implemented under the terms of our contract.”
While the per-minute surcharge is rising from 15 to 16 cents a minute, the excellent news is that the non-station parking price will probably be lower in half, from the present $2 in the price zone to $1 citywide. I, for one, will discover it rather more tempting to park an e-bike in proper in entrance of my vacation spot in the future as an alternative of docking at a station a couple of minutes away, since that comfort will solely price an additional buck.
Scooter use will probably be comparatively dear, at 25 cents a minute, however the non-dock parking price will nonetheless be $1.
Divvy for Everyone
The price of D4E memberships will stay solely $5. As a bonus, the metropolis is eliminating the present one-year restrict for the discounted membership – qualifying residents can re-up as typically as they like.
While the 5-cents-a-minute e-bike surcharge for D4E members is modest, these members will get $10 in free credit score a month for the subsequent 12 months, which can be utilized for surcharges and/or the $1 non-station parking price. So let’s say you’re taking three rides a month to locations the place it’s not handy to park at a dock – that’s $3 in non-dock charges complete. You’d nonetheless have $7 credit score left, sufficient for 140 minutes in free rides, or 4 35-minute journeys.
So occasional D4E riders will more-or-less be capable of use the e-bikes at no cost (minus the $5 annual membership price) anyplace in the metropolis. And even if you happen to commute every day, for the value of a $5 roundtrip ‘L’ journey you’ll be able to journey for 100 minutes, making e-bike-share an reasonably priced different to transit.
Even the scooters will probably be comparatively low-cost for D4E members, at 10 cents a minute, with the identical $1 non-dock parking price.
Interestingly, Levine mentioned the elimination of the waiver zone might have an effect on comparatively few present D4E members, as a result of about three-quarters of D4E journeys are taken in the price zone. He added that, primarily based on 2021 ridership patterns, it’s projected that extra than two-thirds of D4E members pays no surcharges for e-bike rides because of the $10 in free credit score.
Single journey passes
A single Divvy bike journey at the moment prices a flat $3.30 for a 30-minute non-electric bike journey. The new pricing system lowers that to a $1 base fare, however you now should pay 16 cents a minute. That will prevent cash if you happen to’re taking a fast jaunt of as much as 14 minutes, however price you extra on longer journeys.
For each e-bike and scooter rides, there will probably be a comparatively hefty 39-cents-a-minute surcharge, up from the present 20-cent price, plus a $2 non-dock parking price.
24-hour day passes
These have all the time been a very good deal at $15, permitting you to take as many rides of as much as three hours as you want in a single 24-hour interval. That will proceed to be the case for the blue bikes, since the base value isn’t going up. Levine mentioned that’s as a result of, oddly, these passes aren’t a extremely popular choice, even for guests to Chicago.
As with single rides, the present 20-cents-a-minute electrical bike surcharge is almost doubling to 39 cents for each e-bikes and scooters.
New parking corrals
Another initiative that may assist ease any ache related to the elimination of the waiver zone is that Lyft is working with CDOT to put in over 500 on-street bike rack corrals, consisting of “inverted U” racks parallel to one another on rails bolted to the highway, the place each Divvy electrical bicycles and e-scooters, plus personal bikes and scooters, could also be locked, Levine mentioned. The corral areas will seem in the Divvy app. Using GPS know-how, Divvy will detect when its autos are locked at these corrals and waive the normal $1 non-station price for normal and D4E members.
Since these corrals will solely be put in in the former waiver zone, this technique will assist tackle the situation of decrease station density in these areas. The corrals may even assist forestall all the new “lock-to” micromobility gadgets from creating a motorbike rack parking crunch for folks driving their very own bikes and scooters. According to Levine, the same method has been profitable in Portland, Oregon, the place Lyft operates the Biketown bike-share system.
The solely vital draw back of the new pricing construction I can consider is that middle-class-plus individuals who stay in outlying neighborhoods with no conventional docking stations or blue bikes can have no selection however to make use of e-bikes after they need to journey a Divvy cycle, in contrast to their counterparts east of Western and north of Pershing. And in contrast to D4E members, common members from these elements of city will gained’t get the $10 in free month-to-month credit score, in order that they’ll should pay, say, $4.80 for a 30-minute journey ending at a station or corral. So, as has all the time been the case since Divvy debuted virtually a decade in the past, the enjoying area will nonetheless be tipped in favor of downtown and different station-rich, centrally-located neighborhoods like Lincoln Park and Lakeview.
But total the new details about the pricing construction and corrals reassures me that the Divvy system will proceed to typically be reasonably priced and truthful. Are there any downsides or perks of the new system I’m overlooking? Tell us about them in the feedback.