YouBike: Is Renting A Bike In Taipei Right For You?

Here is a video from We View Taiwan, explaining the Taipei YouBike system, which, if we believe the PR, has seen a miraculous rapid turn-around from embarrassing disaster, to shining star of Taipei.

In a recent article in the Taipei Times, the Taipei government unveiled plans to expand the system and award new subsidies to the contractors.

As the city government and its partner in the bicycle program, Giant Bicycles, celebrate the scheme’s one-millionth ride, Taipei’s Department of Transportation is to establish five rental stops today at Lingyun Market, Nangang Elementary School, Nangang Software Park, and the Mass Rapid Transit System’s (MRT) Houshanpia and Gongguan stations as part of its plan to set up 162 stops across the city by next year. 

Currently, there are 41 rental stops at stations along the MRT’s Bannan, Wenhu and Luzhou lines, 11 of which are in Xinyi District (信義). The most-used stops are at Taipei City Hall and Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall MRT stations, as well as at National Taiwan Normal University, the department said.

There are still plenty of bugs in the system. Most notably, there are all these bikes and no practical space to safely ride.

Polar Opposites: Taipei Urged To Follow Kaohsiung's Lead In Bike Rentals

In the wake of a crumbling urban bike "plan", KMT City Councilor, Lee Yen-shiu is urging Taipei to take a more proactive approach to integrating the bicycle into the urban grid by following Kaoshiung's lead in offering an extensive bike rental program.

The Taipei Times Reports:

Taipei City has set up 11 public bicycle rental sites in Xinyi District (信義) since launching the program in 2009, providing 500 bicycles for rent near MRT metropolitan rail stations in the district, including Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall Station and Taipei City Hall Station.

According to the city’s Department of Transportation, an average of 23 people a day use the system. The department has budgeted NT$14 million (US$ 470,000) a year to manage the program, and incurred a loss of more than NT$10 million since its launch.

KMT Taipei City Councilor Lee Yen-shiu (李彥秀) said the department has failed to promote the program by limiting it to the Xinyi District. She called for the number of rental sites to be expanded to 12 districts and for a friendlier environment to be created for cyclists.

“Public bicycles should not only be used for recreational purposes, but as a short-distance commuting tool. With rental sites only in Xinyi, it’s difficult for more residents to take advantage of the service,” she said.

In Greater Kaohsiung, which also launched its bike program in 2009, there are 49 rental sites around the city, with 800 bicycles available, she said, adding that the number of residents using it has reached 1,300 per day.

It is refreshing to finally see some growing criticism on how the government is choosing to craft cycling policy. Now if only someone would commit to giving cyclists space to safely ride.

Inside Knowledge: Taiwanese Bike Companies and The Costs of Chinese Manufacturing

Bicycling IQ has a very good article up on the exodus of smaller Taiwanese bicycle component manufacturers from China as structural increases make doing business in China less of a profitable endeavor. The problem for these companies is in finding competing economies of scale.

Courtesy of the China-Taiwan cross-strait economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA), tariffs on bicycle imports between the two countries have dropped from their previous levels of 12%, to 0% this year. The ECFA has been well-received by Taiwan-based makers of higher-end bicycles; but mostly those who had previously added mainland infrastructure to their manufacturing arsenal, years before they caught a whiff of earnest free trade discussions. They can now toggle their operations almost effortlessly between the two countries, depending on demand and client need. Other, smaller, OEM’s may struggle to compete against such flexibility in a declining global market.

The whole article is really intelligently thought out and is worth a read.

______________________________________

In other news, Giant has apparently won a bid to supply the city of Taipei with a system of bicycle rentals. Details of the winning bid or competing proposals are scant, but it appears Giant has its work cut out for it. This must be good news for Giant's President and Founder, King Liu, who also serves as a special advisor to the Taiwan's president Mr. Ma Ying-jiu.

The You Bike program aims to:

• Promote Taipei City's image as an eco-friendly international metropolis
• Create new tourism opportunities in Taipei
• Improve residential quality of life and citizen satisfaction
• Reduce the use of cars and motorcycles to improve air quality and transportation
• Encourage people to take up cycling
• Transform Taipei into Taiwan's capital of cycling

It is this writer's belief that the Taipei city government will have to do much more in providing city-wide bicycle infrastructure to make this project more than leisure rentals along bike paths. The city will need to provide a safe cycling environment, enforce traffic laws, provide safe storage facilities, retrofit busses and MRT cars for bicycle transit, increase the number of bicycle ONLY lanes and many other projects before this projects can begin to benefit Taipei residents. Lots of work to do before putting bikes on the roads.
_______________________________

Also:

• Jim's Bike Blog takes a brief look at Taiwan's Cycling Scene.

• Merida's Ike Tseng passes away at 81. Merida is Taiwan's second largest producer of bicycles and a major shareholder in Specialized.