Via EcoVelo and Noel Hidalgo, the UK’s Telegraph plots (see their chart) rainfall against temperature and the number of Barclays Cycle Hire bikes in use.

The conclusion: When it’s warm and clear, the bikes are in use!

Photo by Charlene Lam.

The most bikes recorded in use over the 4 days for which data is shown was 1,650. If Chicago suddenly had 1,650 new bikers*, it would make the bicycle mode share jump by 11 percent!

*It would be interesting to know exactly how many users of bike sharing programs did not prevoiusly ride a bike. See statistics on Chicago commuting modes on the American Fact Finder, a service of the U.S. Census Bureau.