{"id":52291,"date":"2017-02-22T09:56:52","date_gmt":"2017-02-22T15:56:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=52291"},"modified":"2017-02-22T09:57:28","modified_gmt":"2017-02-22T15:57:28","slug":"millennials-contribute-to-chicagos-climb-as-a-bike-friendly-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/millennials-contribute-to-chicagos-climb-as-a-bike-friendly-city\/","title":{"rendered":"Millennials contribute to Chicago’s climb as a bike-friendly city"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Haley Velasco<\/strong><\/p>\n

Molly Russell, 26 years old, who is new to Chicago, rides her bike from Lakeview down Lake Shore Drive to get downtown for school.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can just hop downtown with a really easy ride. No stress,\u201d Russell said. \u201cI\u2019m really impressed by the transportation around Chicago. … It has not been quite as cold over the past couple of weeks so I have been trying to bike just to save money and get out and about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rated as the No. 1 biking city in 2016, according to Bicycling Magazine<\/a>, Mayor Rahm Emanuel and the city have made commitments to improving bike lanes and increasing access to bikes through bike-sharing programs like Divvy.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

According to Divvy\u2019s released ridership numbers<\/a>, in Q4 of 2014, 88,972 people 16-27 years old rode Divvy bikes. Out of a total ridership of 437,965, that means approximately 20.21 percent of riders were millennials.<\/p>\n

In Q4 of 2016, 207,686 people 18-29 years old rode Divvy bikes. Out of a total ridership of 683,382, that means approximately 30.39 percent of rides were taken by millennial riders.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Divvy program is certainly going to be something that is going to be expanding and helping people get access to cycling. Whether they are using those bikes for transportation or for some recreation,\u201d said Lou Kuhn, owner, mechanic, manager, The Pony Shop. \u201cI think they are mostly getting used for transportation. That certainly seems to be expanding. The capacity for people to be able to get into cycling easily around here.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the end of 2016, Divvy also announced that it hit 10 million rider mark<\/a> since its founding in July 2013. This made Divvy the third bike-sharing system in the nation to hit the milestone, following Capital Bikeshare in Washington, D.C. and Citi Bike in New York City.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere’s been a great uptick of millennial bikers,” said David Pohlad, program director, Bikes N\u2019 Roses<\/a>, a non-profit that employs youth in bike shops in Albany Park and Belmont Cragin. “I saw it starting when I was in high school about eight years ago, and it’s still growing. I think a lot of it has to do with freedom. In a city as dense as Chicago, you can get anywhere on a bike quickly,\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Divvy program has done a lot for cycling. It’s great for people that aren’t quite committed to biking enough to buy a bike, lock, helmet, lights, etc. can jump on and go.\u201d Pohlad said.<\/p>\n

The Chicago Department of Transportation created the Divvy for Everyone campaign to \u201coffer all Chicagoans an affordable, accessible and fun transportation option,\u201d according to Divvy<\/a>. People 16 years or older (with an annual household income at or below 300 percent of the Federal Poverty Level,) can register for an annual membership for just $5.<\/p>\n

\u201cPersonally, I look at the introduction of Divvy’s “Divvy for Everyone” (D4E) program as one if its largest successes yet,\u201d Pohlad said. \u201cIt addresses this lack of cycling access and provides residents of low income neighborhoods an equitable opportunity to cycling as a form of transportation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mayor Emanuel also pledged last year to create 50 more miles of lanes over the next three years, have been helpful with getting riders, especially millennial ones, on bikes.<\/p>\n

\u201cMillennials that we see that are getting into it are getting into it as a lifestyle choice. They don\u2019t want to be on the train. They don\u2019t want to be on the bus,\u201d Kuhn said. \u201cThey just want to be in charge of their own transportation with riding. I think it\u2019s a freeing way to live your life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Photo at top: Chicago\u2019s bike share program, Divvy, gives Chicagoans another option for biking. (Haley Velasco\/MEDILL)<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Haley Velasco Molly Russell, 26 years old, who is new to Chicago, rides her bike from Lakeview down Lake Shore Drive to get downtown for school. \u201cI can just hop downtown with a really easy ride. No stress,\u201d Russell said. \u201cI\u2019m really impressed by the transportation around Chicago. … It has not been quite […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":345,"featured_media":52295,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,3516],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general-interest","category-winter-2017"],"yoast_head":"\nMillennials contribute to Chicago's climb as a bike-friendly city - Medill Reports Chicago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/millennials-contribute-to-chicagos-climb-as-a-bike-friendly-city\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Millennials contribute to Chicago's climb as a bike-friendly city - Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Haley Velasco Molly Russell, 26 years old, who is new to Chicago, rides her bike from Lakeview down Lake Shore Drive to get downtown for school. \u201cI can just hop downtown with a really easy ride. 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