City Offering $5 Divvy Memberships To Low-Income Residents
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Low-income residents in Chicago are being offered significant discounts on the city's popular Divvy bike-sharing program.
The new initiative, known as Divvy for Everyone (D4E), would allow qualifying low-income residents to get an annual Divvy membership for only $5 – a $70 discount off the normal rate.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel said it's' not enough to make Divvy bikes physically available across the city.
"While you may have bikes in a community, but if they're not financially accessible, they're just another piece of public furniture," he said.
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Divvy added more than 175 new stations this year, expanding the program to more than 4,750 bikes citywide. While the expansion brought stations as far south as 75th Street, as far north as Touhy Avenue, and as far west as Pulaski Road, many parts of the South and West Sides still don't have any Divvy bikes.
Slow Roll Chicago, a group promoting bicycle use in the city, partnered with Divvy and Go Bronzeville, a neighborhood group, to conduct outreach for D4E.
"We consider this a step towards getting more people of color, and more low- to moderate-income people to look at bikes as a form of transportation," said Slow Roll Chicago founder Olatunji Oboi Reed. "Our vision is equal bicycle usage across the city of Chicago, with respect to race, and income, and geography. We envision bikes as a form of transportation contributing to reducing violence, improving health, and creating jobs."
To qualify for the D4E initiative, an individual would have to make less than $35,000 a year.
