Today I rode from SYS Memorial Hall to Yongkang Jie, which I think is about as far as I can go within the free 30 minute period. It took 20 minutes and I was riding pretty quickly.
Youbike is really exploding in popularity, especially on the weekends. I’ve had trouble finding an available bike on a couple of occasions. I noticed they even have workers redistributing extra bikes now to the more popular stations.
For those who mostly ride the MRT, Youbike is a great way to explore past the MRT stations. Here are some itineraries I like:
[ul][]Taipei City Hall MRT station to Zhongqiang Park – This park is right by the trailhead for Elephant Mountain.[/]
[]Taipei City Hall MRT station to Raohe Night Market – Great night market and otherwise hard to access except by bus or the Songshan TRA station.[/]
[]SYS Memorial Hall MRT station to Minsheng/Guangfu intersection – Okay I have not actually tried to do this ride and it might be a little far if you’re trying to stay under 30 minutes, but this stop is close to the “Minsheng Community” with its overpriced cafes and trendy wine stores, and again otherwise pretty hard to access except by bus.[/][/ul]
I have used it a couple of times and I think it’s nice if you want to see Taipei from a different angle and at a different pace and you don’t want to buy your own bicycle. I must say it’s a quite different perspective compared to walking, scootering, bus riding, and car driving. I always thought cycling in Taipei is bad, but with the no-obstacle policy in place and every pavement having a ramp to get on and off easily, it’s quite convenient. If only there were less pedestrians… It’s great to ride the lanes and alleys, lot’s of new things to discover there. I often ride a scooter and I find it amazing how suddenly all scooter riders become “them” when you ride a bicycle. The Dunhua bike lane is a complete waste of money, every ten meters there is car parking there (and I can’t blame them, people need to stop somewhere). The pavement is wide enough, I think they should have painted the bikeway on the pavement. The pedestrians can walk under the arcade.
I’m thinking the Youbike could be a good way to push for better bike lanes in Taipei. By making biking free and accessible (and including the shopping basket), many people are starting to see that biking is not just for leisure trips along the river, but can also be viable for short commutes, errands, etc. Hopefully this will create a lot of demand for real, practical bike lanes. Usually there’s a chicken-and-the-egg problem where you can’t have bike lanes without demand (and you can’t have demand without bike lanes), but the Youbike just might be the solution.
You mean like Japan has had for decades, the riding at full tilt on the pavements?
It’s good, its better than scooters everywhere, but it will also create a bit of a headache for pedestrians, can’t win them all I guess. Widened pavements seem to be the best option for urban cycling in densely packed cities.
Just saw today that they removed the green bicycle lanes on Dunhua Road recently. Looked pretty when they established the lanes, problem was, most cyclists stayed on the pavement anyway, cause there where too many cars blocking the bike lane. Just another example of how you just can’t do here what citys abroad (like in Holland) do successfully there.
You could raise up the bicycle lanes, so cars could not park on top.
You could then have a few parking guards around fining people parking on them, or using cameras to get people for blocking them.
The design was half baked to begin with.
The bike lanes from Daxi to Bali are all blocked well off, and even then do you get scooters or cars sneaking in. You have to allow for oafs in the design of things here, including blocking it properly off.
[quote=“claimui”]Today I rode from SYS Memorial Hall to Yongkang Jie, which I think is about as far as I can go within the free 30 minute period. It took 20 minutes and I was riding pretty quickly.
[/quote]
Are you really that poor? It’s only 10NT for each additional 30 min after the first free 30 min. But if you’re really that stingy, you can “return” your bike at a midway station and continue on after you swipe your card, effectively starting the clock again. :aiyo:
It’s not about value, well not about rational value. YouBikes were $10 per 30 min before and had very little usage. But once it became “free,” its popularity exploded, even though the difference is “only” $10. People value “free” a lot more than the savings would rationally justify. Plenty of studies to back this up (some might find it intuitively obvious).
Anyway there aren’t any midway stations between SYS Memorial Hall and Yongkang Jie (depends on your route, but generally I find Ren Ai Rd. to be the best way to go through Da An District on bike). There are a couple stations that are a little out of the way like that. I assume the gaps will be filled in over time, but it’s still fun to see how far you can go with the current system.
I wonder if anyone has spotted those orange bikes in Kaohsiung before. I have seen some of the grey/green Kaohsiung bikes in Taipei. One is permanently parked in front of Taida.
so whats the easiest way to go to the river bike lane from Nangang Exhibition Hall Youbike Station? I can’t seem to find a way to go to the river from there!?
[quote=“claimui”]
Anyway there aren’t any midway stations between SYS Memorial Hall and Yongkang Jie (depends on your route, but generally I find Ren’ai Rd. to be the best way to go through Da’an District on bike). There are a couple stations that are a little out of the way like that. I assume the gaps will be filled in over time, but it’s still fun to see how far you can go with the current system.[/quote]
If you want to save time riding from point A to point B, turn every time you come to a red light instead of waiting for it to turn green. You may not be able to ride the scenic Renai Rd using this method, but it’ll shave minutes off your ride as you traverse across the city. Make use of the network of alleys and the sidewalk. You can cross the street with the pedestrians while all the other vehicles are waiting at a stoplight. The countdown also helps. My rule is if the red light has less than 30 seconds remaining, I’ll wait. More than 30, I’ll turn. Don’t be shy about using the bell either.
They should should build a station at Gongguan for my convenience… So far only one at Keelung Road near 5 Senses Cafe. This afternoon was perfect weather for riding a bicycle, which I did.
Your wish is coming true. They ARE building one at Gongguan, right outside the MRT on the university side. I’ll be sure to say “should” twice next time I wish for something.
More stations have been set up recently, but all the stations seem to be concentrated in eastern and southern parts of the city. Currently there’s nothing west of Songjiang and Jinshan Rd and north of Jilong river, which is a pity considering the nice riverside bike paths in those parts.
Lately I’ve also come across more defective bikes. The bell lever is missing on a lot of the bikes, rendering the bell useless, and the lights often don’t work.
Your wish is coming true. They ARE building one at Gongguan, right outside the MRT on the university side. I’ll be sure to say “should” twice next time I wish for something.[/quote]
I returned my bike at that station last week and realized why I haven’t spotted it before. All bikes were gone. Lots of students use them apparently.
That’s a lot better than arriving at a full station, which happened to me several weeks ago. It’s strange how some stations get empty easily and some are full at the same time of day. I had to ride to another station to return the bike and walk an extra 15 minutes to get home.
That’s completely logical if you think about it. One of the problems these schemes have is that bikes must be trucked between locations to even the load out.
