Three Divvy stations are set to open on Northwestern’s campus before the start of the next academic year.

The bike-sharing stations will be located near Norris University Center, Technological Institute and Scott Hall or The Arch.

The stations will be part of Evanston’s partnership with Divvy, a bike-sharing program based in Chicago. Evanston will have eight stations, one of which will be on or adjacent to NU’s campus, said Ylda Capriccioso, Evanston’s intergovernmental affairs coordinator.

Campus locations for the stations were determined by surveys conducted by Associated Student Government, the Office of Sustainability and the city, said Kevin Harris, ASG’s vice president for community relations.

Norris and the area around The Arch and Scott Hall were selected because they are convenient locations for students, faculty and staff, said Rob Whittier, director of the Office of Sustainability. Norris also hosts events for the Evanston community, and The Arch is close to Evanston Public Library. He added Tech was chosen because it has the largest capacity and highest academic traffic.

NU will finance two of the stations located on or adjacent to campus — the Norris station and one of the Sheridan locations, Harris said. The other Sheridan location will be financed by the city.

“There’s still a lot of work to be done on the facilities side in figuring out what are the actual best locations,” Harris said.

Exact locations for each station within these vicinities have not been decided, as several factors such as size and access to solar power are currently being discussed, Whittier said.

Other locations in Evanston include near the Davis Metra and Chicago Transit Station stops and other transportation hubs, Whittier said. Surveys favored stations near shopping and transit areas.

The extension of Chicago’s Divvy bike share into Evanston, Oak Park and other Chicago suburbs will be partially financed by a $3 million state investment.

“It’s not just for students; it’s not just for undergraduates,” Harris said. “It’s also for faculty and staff, and really anyone in the Northwestern community can use a bike off campus in Evanston and bring it on campus as well and park it at one of the stations that will be around campus.”

In addition to NU, Evanston has proposed partnerships with numerous other organizations including Evanston Hospital, Whittier said.

“We reached out to a variety of different groups to determine where we could put certain locations,” Capriccioso said. “We’ve had a long standing conversation with a variety of different groups and interested parties, business district areas and Northwestern.”

NU was eager to partner with Evanston, as the University has considered a bike-sharing program on campus for a long time, Harris said. ASG had previously considered partnerships with other organizations in the past to create a campus bike share, Harris said.

“When we learned that Evanston was going to receive eight stations in this first rollout thanks to a lot of funding from the state, and kind of with this joint partnership with Oak Park, we were naturally curious where they were going,” Harris said. “We saw this as a great opportunity to look at bike sharing here at Northwestern on campus because that’s always been a common conversation.”

Capriccioso also expressed satisfaction with the partnership.

“I think we’re both — Northwestern and the city — excited to be working together on this like we do with a lot of different programs,” Capriccioso said.

The headline of this article was updated at 9:00 p.m.

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