Everything you wanted to know about the YouBike

Youbike should add helmet rental. Optional. Same system as bikes, use the same locking mechanism. A tree of helmets for (optional, separate) rental. Maybe even make it free (but still secured by EasyCard).

You know, Taipei is one of few cities where you feel life is improving. Always a new Metro line, or new Youbike rentals. youbike.com.tw/ Only the taxi drivers might be unhappy.

I regularly take it for commuting to work, plus some random Sunday rides on the riverside park. The longest one my gf and I did on a Youbike was 75km: from Nangang to Xike, back to Nangang after crossing the river, then all the way to Beitou via Neihu, down to Sanchong and Erchong, cross shortly after Taipei bridge back into the city, back to Beitou (south bank this time), then all the way to Tiding Blvd. We finally dropped the bikes close to Yongchun MRT. It got a bit pricey (350ntd per person) but it was fun.

That’s quite a ride on a three-speed bike. You’re most definitely in the minority. I read the other day that 80% of Youbike users rent it for less than 30 minutes and more than half of them use it for less than 15 minutes. So despite the bike’s popularity, the city government is not really making much money off of it due to the first 30 minute free of charge policy.

People keep telling me this, but how many speeds do you really need on a almost perfectly flat road, barring the occasional access ramp to bridges?
?

My only complaint is with the first gear. It’s not fast enough. When the light turns green, I’d like my bike to have a fast pickup (which my 27-speed mountain bike affords) so I wouldn’t be left in the motorbikes exhaust. But the way Youbike’s gear ratio is designed just doesn’t let you pedal fast enough, so I often have to ride standing up to accelerate ahead of the motorcycle pack. A faster first gear would also make some of those riverside access ramps easier to ascend.

That’s quite a ride on a three-speed bike. You’re most definitely in the minority. I read the other day that 80% of Youbike users rent it for less than 30 minutes and more than half of them use it for less than 15 minutes. So despite the bike’s popularity, the city government is not really making much money off of it due to the first 30 minute free of charge policy.[/quote]

If the first 30mins weren’t free. I don’t think many people would be using them.

I have been making frequent trips to riverside park and there are a lot of people riding them. I’ve seen a plenty up in Danshui as well. However, that’s probably a really really small percentage of users.

Dear all:
I’m Weiting Chen,a graduate student of NTU.
Because I’m researching “foreign tourists” using YouBike during Taipei tour,
I need to interview foreign toursts that have used YouBike, please help!
The interview cost about 30~40 minutes, and we prepare gift coupons for you($500 convenience store).
If you or your friends are foreign toursts that have used YouBike, please contact me. Thank you!

Graduate Institute of Geography,
National Taiwan University.
Professor: Jen-Jia Lin
Graduate Student: Wei-Ting Chen
E-mail:r02228015@ntu.edu.tw
Facebook: facebook.com/weiting.chen.71

Heard on the news that the new mayor is considering to do away with the free 30-minute policy. If that’s really the case, I’m all for it. :bravo: The freebie makes the system prone to abuse and causes a shortage of available bikes. Last night I went to a station and found it empty, so I decided to wait for a bike only to discover somebody else was already standing there waiting, so I just gave up. Where are all the bikes? Nowadays if you go to the riverside bike paths in the evening, you’ll find at least 30% of the bikes out there are Ubikes. People are using it for exercise! And many of them ride in a group. :noway: If you want to exercise by riding a bike, go buy a proper bike! The Ubike is designed for commuting and running errands. If people have to pay to use it, I’m sure the cheap bastards will stop using it, and the bikes will be freed up for those who really need them.

I think it will be NT$10 for the first 30 minutes. Mayor Ko said that the bikes were not free, it was just that Taipei City government is paying now.

He wants to add another 1900 bikes and also make sure that you are never more than 200 meter away from a Ubike station.

What they need to do as well is to make some DECENT bicycle paths and crack down om people biking on the sidewalk, most of those having no clue about traffic safety.

The streets of Taipei have turned dangerous, IMHO.

A better system would be to tie it to a bus or MRT and make it free if you transfer within a certain amount of time. If it takes less than five minutes to bike from my home to the MRT station, I don’t want to have to pay an extra NT$10 to cut off 15 minutes from my commute. Sometimes I take a YouBike to head to the post office or something and then have to take another one home (because we all know waiting in line for banking there can take a considerable amount of time). I don’t want to be charged twice.

[quote=“Weiting Chen”]Dear all:
I’m Weiting Chen,a graduate student of NTU.
Because I’m researching “foreign tourists” using YouBike during Taipei tour,
I need to interview foreign toursts that have used YouBike, please help!
The interview cost about 30~40 minutes, and we prepare gift coupons for you($500 convenience store).
If you or your friends are foreign toursts that have used YouBike, please contact me. Thank you!

Graduate Institute of Geography,
National Taiwan University.
Professor: Jen-Jia Lin
Graduate Student: Wei-Ting Chen
E-mail:r02228015@ntu.edu.tw
Facebook: facebook.com/weiting.chen.71[/quote]

We’re not foreign tourists … most of us live here, for a long time.

The system in Antwerp, Belgium make you buy a day, week or year pass first. Than you can use it 30 minutes free per ride with a 4 hours limit per ride. You can however make multiple rides per 24h, with a 5 minutes break inbetween. Going over the 4 hours limit gets you find 1 point, 3 points cancels your pass.
velo-antwerpen.be/en/

velo-antwerpen.be/en/rates

Agreed. People do take advantage of the fare they pay on the bikes and the bikes get the worst out of the deal. I always always hesitate when swiping my easy card for a bike, even though I’ve checked tire pressure and the breaks. You never know if it’s one of those bikes with a faulty chain or if the seat post won’t stay up.

[quote=“Incubus”]Nowadays if you go to the riverside bike paths in the evening, you’ll find at least 30% of the bikes out there are Ubikes. People are using it for exercise!
And many of them ride in a group. :noway: If you want to exercise by riding a bike, go buy a proper bike!The Ubike is designed for commuting and running errands. If people have to pay to use it, I’m sure the cheap bastards will stop using it, and the bikes will be freed up for those who really need them.[/quote]

Wasn’t that the idea? Exercise? Yes, the bikes aren’t built for anything above a 30 min commute, but to be quite honest, if the people riding ubikes have never actually ridden a 20,000NT+ bike, they won’t know the difference.

A lot of the people out in groups are there because of spontaneous decisions because they are definitely not dressed to exercise. Some are there for exercise, but most aren’t.

I think it will be NT$10 for the first 30 minutes. Mayor Ko said that the bikes were not free, it was just that Taipei City government is paying now.

He wants to add another 1900 bikes and also make sure that you are never more than 200 meter away from a Ubike station.

What they need to do as well is to make some DECENT bicycle paths and crack down om people biking on the sidewalk, most of those having no clue about traffic safety.

The streets of Taipei have turned dangerous, IMHO.[/quote]

A lot of folks ride far too fast on the pavement, including foreigners, I worry about my kids getting hit.

To be fair… In the few places in Taipei that we actually have proper bike paths next to the sidewalk, people tend to walk on the bikepaths, rendering them almost useless… Can hardly blame cyclists for not seeing the added value of sticking to those bikepath when the actual sidewalk is usually more clear. They basically have to swerve through a flock of pedestrians randomly spread out over both sidewalk and bikepath, moving at a snails pace, where they are supposed to have a safe path for them to ride the bike on.

Sidenotes…

  1. I’m only talking about the road segments where we have bikepaths… On other roads I believe the cyclists belong on the road or, when on the sidewalk, should respect the snails pace.
  2. I myself prefer to ride on the road, even when using a U-bike, so not talking from a lot of personal experience here, just making a (hopefully fairly objective) observation.

Taiwanese will stop using Ubikes from the very second it’s no longer free for the first 30 minutes.
Taiwanese love cheap or free things and rather sacrifice quality of life than spend 10 NT$.
For those 10 NT$ they could have bought another spoon full of mystery meat from the nigh market boilt in gutter oil.
Famous Taiwanese snack I heard.

Being cheap will one day kill this island.

Taiwanese will stop using Ubikes from the very second it’s no longer free for the first 30 minutes.
Taiwanese love cheap or free things and rather sacrifice quality of life than spend 10 NT$.
For those 10 NT$ they could have bought another spoon full of mystery meat from the nigh market boilt in gutter oil.
Famous Taiwanese snack I heard.

Being cheap will one day kill this island.[/quote]

Yeah, I don’t see that happening.

In response to your comment about locals being cheap. The 10NT is still cheaper than any means of public transportation available. Cheapest MRT fare is 16NT and bus is 15NT. If you hold a student easy card, even cheaper. Don’t even try to get me on the half off bus or MRT after you’ve taken either the bus or MRT. The added fair of bus+MRT is still more than the ubike fare. If locals are cheap, why not use the cheapest means of transportation available? Or are you saying they are so cheap they would rather spend zero dollars and walk to get to their destination at an even slower pace?

Yes, it does add up if you’re only running errands like some people use it for, but the bikes are already a staple means of transportation for a lot of people and I don’t see how a 10NT hike in the price will really mean no one will be using the bikes. I predict there will be a decline in users, but not to the point where you won’t see anyone riding them. They are just too convenient.

This was a good move by Mayor Ko because he saw that the system was making little to no money. I don’t use the bikes often since I bought my own bike for exercise and short 7-11 or food runs, but when I do, 10NT will not stop me.

The Ubike system is losing money hands over fist.

Advertising etc cannot even come close to cover, if they are to make the system sustainable, they need to start charging at least the running costs to the users.

My recent Ubike experience:

On Sunday I went to Taipei very early to do some geocaching. I had planned to get around using the MRT and walking, but since I was near a Ubike stand that actually had some bikes (it was 7am, after all) I decided to get some exercise. In the past I’d only ever gotten a Ubike for a short jaunt, so it was always free. But this time I ended up keeping the bike for eleven hours. I have no idea how much it cost me because when I returned the bike I kept getting an error number when I scanned my Easy Card (there was NT$900+ on the card). I tried to remove the bike and try the return process again, but the bike was now locked into the rack, and swiping the card just kept giving me error message 02 (Problem with card).

The next day I got a phone message that the bike had never been returned. When I called and explained what happened, the friendly worker looked up my info told me I needed to go back to the station I returned the bike to, and once there I should call back and try again. I told her that I was calling from Taoyuan where I live and work. She kept insisting that I needed to go back to the bike station in Taipei. After the third time of explaining that I was in Taoyuan and about to go to work I finally said, “The next time I’m in Taipei I’ll take care of it.” At that point she said she’d have one of their staff go to the station and check it out, and call me back. That was more than 24 hours ago and I still haven’t gotten a call back, so I’m assuming that my Easy Card will be blocked from renting a bike in the future. Who knows?

[quote=“Steve4nLanguage”]My recent Ubike experience:

On Sunday I went to Taipei very early to do some geocaching.[/quote]

What, exactly, is that?