Don’t know how I missed this until now, but here’s some news from late October. Taitung is getting YouBikes!
Currently the plans are for 120 stations and 560 2.0 bikes and 560 2.0E bikes.
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Finally a way to get around the city.
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I like this!
According to that announcement linked above, only around 100 youbikes are to be seeded in Taitung by the end of 2024, but then the numbers will be ramped up to around 800 in 2025.
Guy
What’s the QR code button on the bike itself?
Accidently pressed the button and had to wait for it to timeout.
It’s for scanning with the app instead of typing the 4 digit code. I don’t understand why they have it when the screen is pretty frequently too cloudy to scan anyway.
Does anyone know what happens if you want to return a bike, your free time/fee schedule is running out in 2 minutes, and the station is full? Tough luck?
Call them up and ask, let us know what they say.
It’s not that expensive, right? Besides, didn’t you answer your own question here?
I’m curious though — do most people go out of their way to only use the free period, or is there a fair proportion of users who actually pay?
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In the app there’s an option to apply for a 15min. time extension and it will show you nearby stations you can go to to return the bike if the station you’re at is full. I’ve never run into this issue myself so I’m not sure how what they check for when selecting this option, but successful application results in an extra free 15min.
Most people I know who ride YouBike are typically within the free period but if they go over usually it’s only the 10NT extra which they are fine with.
If I remember correctly Taichung’s system has a 15min. lock out period at the same station you return a bike to which is intended to prevent swapping your bike to get another free 30 minutes. I imagine that would be too much of a hassle for most people trying to save 10NT.
I think if you find that the bike has a problem or something you can return it to the same station within 5min. and won’t get locked out so you can swap to a different bike right away.
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Taichung is celebrating the Premier 12 win by providing everyone, not just city residents, with free YouBike rides (up to 12 hours a time) on Nov. 30th and Dec. 1st.
In the past few weeks Taichung has also added 23 new YouBike station across multiple districts.
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I’ve ridden Youbike from Taichung train station to/from Houli station a few times. Like 25km. Nice mostly unobstructed dedicated bike path.
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When I started climbing Balaka yesterday morning, I saw a guy resting with a YouBike at the start of the hill. I thought he’d gotten himself into a harder task than he’d expected and didn’t think I’d see him again.
And later I saw him at the parking lot at the top - I’d gotten there faster than him, but the difference in time was embarrassingly slight.
Hold on, maybe he had one of those e-bikes. I keep forgetting those exist. OK, that’d make me feel better about my rather slow climb yesterday.
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25km on a good bike path is nothing. That’s Taipei main station to danshui. If you do it on the riverside paths, it should be fairly smooth, taking about a couple of hours.
Are you distance-shaming me?!
It’s a really nice ride.
Seems like a lot longer than Taipei/Danshui.
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I’m not trying to… seems everyone’s on a hair trigger these days.
Two of us loaded Youbikes on river ferry in Danshui. Three bikes total on the boat. Someone took one of our bikes off the ferry as boat landed! We ran off two directions chasing other Youbikes. Finally found an old Taiwan guy who had ours. He said the basket looked like his so he took it.
Luckily, I had both made a mental note of the bike numbers and snapped a picture of the bikes with numbers visible. So we could immediately start looking.
Always immediately remember your bike number or snap pic of it.
Why? So you can chase it down if someone grabs the wrong bike.
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No need to chase it down if you just lock it.
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Was there a bike left on the ferry?
YouBike has officialy launched in Taitung today!
So far just 14 stations and 140 bikes in Taitung City. Both regular AND electric bikes will be free for first 30min. until March next year.
Seems at the event to celebrate the launch of YouBike a politician fell over.
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