Divvy planning + implementation

Sam Schwartz has partnered with the City of Chicago’s Department of Transportation from the beginning on the City’s bike sharing system. Sam Schwartz worked with the City to launch Divvy in 2013 and has continued to manage the planning and implementation of the system as it has grown to nearly 600 stations and 5,000 bikes.

In order to determine the ideal service area and station densities for Divvy, Sam Schwartz has conducted detailed analyses of neighborhood and rider characteristics to better predict potential ridership. Individual station locations are selected based on criteria including safety factors, connectivity to transit, user experience, system operation, funding availability, advertisement value, and impact on pedestrian mobility, among others. Honing in on specific station locations is also a collaborative process with the community; our team manages a website where users can suggest a station location, hosts community meetings, and interviews elected officials and community leaders to gather information. Our team also partners with the City to ensure the process for siting new stations is as streamlined as possible by designing trainings for new staff to understand the bike share siting process, developing and submitting installation plans, coordinating approvals with necessary City departments and officials, preparing permit applications, and coordinating the schedule for station installation.

Ingenuity / New Mobility