Chicago will soon be home to the largest bike sharing program in both the nation and the continent.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced Wednesday that Divvy Bikes will expand to 475 stations next year thanks to a $3 million federal grant funding 75 new stations on top of the 100 additions that were already planned.
Currently, there are 300 operational stations in Chicago, compared with 331 Citi Bike stations in New York and 434 BIXI stations in Montreal.
The additions will make Divvy the fifth-largest bike share system in the world -- and that's not even including suburban expansions that are also in the works. According to WBEZ, both Oak Park and Evanston have submitted applications for federal grants to bring Divvy to their suburbs.
Divvy riders have taken more than 600,000 trips and biked more than 1.5 million in the five months since the program debuted, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
In other recent Divvy news, the program confirmed last month it plans to remain fully operational during the winter months, albeit with a reduced fleet, except for in "very extreme" weather conditions.