Taiwan's Public Cycling Decline

The United Daily the Liberty Times both have reports detailing the Ministry of Transportation's report on a steady decline in bicycle use nationwide.

Taiwan, which often bills itself as the "bicycle kingdom" in promotional material, is experiencing a contraction in the use of public bicycles as well as bicycles for transportation.

The key factor, as pointed out by the Ministry of Transportation, was the easing of fuel prices over the past year, which has encouraged people to opt for the use of personal motorized transportation for shorter trips. Many respondents also cited "convenience" as a factor.

While bicycle use has grown in Taipei, New Taipei City, Hsinchu, Hualien and Pingtung, ridership has fallen elsewhere, negating any gains. According to the data, Yilan, Yunlin, Miaoli, Kaohsiung, Taoyuan, Taichung and Tainan all experienced negative growth in ridership over the past seven years. The Ministry of Transportation feels the expected rise in gas prices could again fuel growth, but some experts are less optimistic.

It is also interesting to look at the areas that experienced the greatest growth and to wonder about infrastructure spending and government subsidies in those areas as they correlate to political alignment.

The study also found that riders between 15-18 years of age were most likely to participate in bike-share programs--a statistic supporting the assertion that Taiwan's bike share programs do little to cut emissions.

In most areas, there is still no real space for bicycles on the roadways, making commuting by bicycle inconvenient, impractical and dangerous.

While Taiwan's bicycle programs have been highly touted in the international press, this report really serves to highlight the disparities between Taiwan's far north, and the rest of the country, as well as how few reporters ever venture out of Taipei.

It could also be that the bike trend is over in Taiwan.    

Elephant In The Room: Growing Criticism Over Taiwan's Corporate Model For Cycling Infrastructure

Taiwan Insights has an excellent article examining the trouble Taiwan, and Taipei especially, is having with integrating its leisure and utility cycling infrastructure to promote cycling as a viable mode of transportation. 

The article points to several of the causes this blogger has identified (here and here), namely that the bicycle infrastructure model adopted by Taipei and the central government is driven by the interests of large corporations whose main commitment is to their board and shareholders rather than the interest of public good. 

This model leads to an ultimate conflict of interest and misguided policy. Just look at how the government effectively relied on corporate advisors to solve the problem of cars crashing into cyclists. 

The article states:

With two leading bicycle manufacturing companies on Taiwan, the island is known as the “bicycle kingdom.” Nevertheless, despite Giant and Merida’s presence, it is very difficult to commute by bike in Taiwan’s cities. Taipei City Councilman Chen Yan-bo pointed out, “Frankly speaking, Taipei has yet to provide an environment for cyclists to bike to work.” However, municipalities, non-profits and Taiwan’s bike manufacturers are working hard to make its cities more bike-friendly. 

Lin Yin-hong, the author of A Bike City, is a well-known cyclist and writer in Taiwan. He used to cycle to school daily as he pursued his PhD in Germany. But, upon returning to Taiwan he put his bike into storage, saying “All Taipei residents know how difficult it is to commute to work by bike.”

The article goes on to contrast the bike schemes developed by both Taipei and Kaohsiung, Taiwan's two largest metropoles. This is the second time this year a ruling party politician has come out against the government's efforts to expand the cycling plan to include commuters. 

Both the southern city of Kaohsiung and the capital Taipei unveiled public commuter bike rental schemes in 2009 in the hope of creating “Bike Cities.” The public bike rental system called “YouBike,” is sponsored by the Transportation Department of the Taipei City Government in partnership with Giant to provide 500 rental bikes at 11 locations in Taipei’s Xinyi District, the city’s most vibrant commercial area. 

Commonwealth reported that the rental usage of the YouBike has been underwhelming since its founding three years ago. For example, average daily rental numbers were only 178 bicycles from January to August last year, which means 64 percent of the bikes were not in use.

As long as Taiwan's roads remain largely unregulated and laws unenforced, there is no reason for Taiwanese to hop on bikes to commute. 

But either way this is a boon for Giant as they have already procured the meaty government contract with the Taipei government pledging to throw more taxpayer's money at a problem that Giant will undoubtedly be happy to help them fix. 

Commonwealth reported that the Taipei City Government announced in July that it was going to invest NT$228 million (US$7.6 million) to turn YouBike around with the expectancy of expanding to nine areas in Taipei City, adding 5,000 bikes and an extra 162 rental stations over three years. The main goal is to help Taipei reduce its 5,021 metric tons of carbon emissions by 2018. 

However, Councilman Chen is worried that this new investment is too much of a gamble. Lin concurs, “Who will spend money on bike rental? Even those who are Taipei residents owning bikes do not commute by bike.”

The article concludes with a very poignant and obvious observation:

"It seems that Taiwan is doing things backwards by building a public bike system first before improving the traffic environment. It is also very difficult to allocate new bike lanes on existing city roads. The only way for Taiwan to build a bicycle-friendly traffic environment is through legislation and educational advocacy to promote shared traffic rights for pedestrians, motorists, motorcyclists, and cyclists..."

Pretty bold for a blog run by the Government Information Office.
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Also:

• Government promotes contest to improve tourism along the Rift Valley. Cycling tourism is a major target.

• Buy land now, Giant considers a new headquarters in the Houli Science Park. 

• Oh my! My friend and former co-worker, Albert Chen, has arrived in Belgium on one of the final legs of his cycling mission. Yes, Mormons are not the only missionaries to travel by bike. Albert, a devout Catholic and avid cyclist, has taken it upon himself to cycle the world in the hopes of sharing the world vision of the Holy See. Although I do not agree with the idea of missionary work, I wish him a safe journey. We had spent quite a lot of time discussing cycling routes and Albert was very keen on pedaling through some places that are often not entirely friendly to the Christian cause. I am happy he has arrived in Europe safely. Like a two wheeled Godfrey de Bouillion, Albert's next stop... Israel.