This deal is municipality specific, offered in Taipei City.
Your man @BGC seems however to be making his way in the wilds of central Taiwan . . .
Guy
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What do you mean? Iāve only been in Taipei City so far and havenāt left except one night where I biked over the bridge to New Taipei but thatās it. The bike thing worked there too.
Mea culpa! I was thrown off and confused by the fact you posted here in the "Taichung Offers . . . " thread. It didnāt occur to me that someone in Taipei City would post a transport query about Taipei City in a Taichung thread. 
Guy
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New to Taiwan so forgive me for not knowing the areas or how they are different in terms of public transport, which I donāt use lol. Also note, the name is TPASS in both of these places, probably adding to the confusion. They also both have the 30 minutes free program similarly for the bikes. Didnāt realize Taichung has apparently a completely separate system and pricing altogether or I would have specified iām in Taipei. What is Taichung like? How different is it from living in Taipei? I am curious 
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Itās crap. Itās still better than Canada in terms of transit, but that is a low bar. You will need to drive. There is barely anything fun to do.
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Is there any other municipality in Taiwan that chose to restrict TPASS deals to citizens only? Taichung, under its current administration, deserves the poo poo descriptor dished out by @Marco for blocking its hard working noncitzens from the deal even though they also pay taxes!
Guy
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Yup only Taichung has discount for ROC Nationals with household registration in Taichung for TPass. Same for 10km free bus rides with max 10NT charge over. Free 30min. youbike rides are the same now too. Although for bus and youbike you can register your EasyCard to get the benefits if you are a student that studies in Taichung (so both international students and students from other cities who go to school in Taichung can get the benefits), married to a Taichung resident, and I think APRC might be able to as well if you live in Taichung but not too sure about that.
Really just anecdotal so I really have no idea and might just be coincidence but it seems like I saw less migrant workers taking the bus after they lost out on the free bus rides and more switched to those mini electric scooters that everyone hates.
Although if I recall correctly migrant workers no longer need their employerās permission to get a proper scooter now so maybe that also played a part too.
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Guy
When all the Taichung Civic Sports Centers in Taichung were celebrating by giving everyone free gym access (no time limit) for a couple days because of the Olympics I felt a bit bummed out since it was only for Taichung āresidentsā.
I told the nice guy working at the counter thanks for asking if I was a Taichung resident, but Iām a foreignerā¦as in my experience that typically means I donāt count as a āresidentā but he said thatās no problem as long as my ARC address was in Taichung I could enjoy the free gym promotion as well!
To be honest that small thing was quite nice and really made my day.
Now if only the city could follow suitā¦
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A little grace really makes people feel welcomed doesnāt it.
Guy
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Yep exactly. But I am not doing 4 months military service so I can ride the buses for freeā¦
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Iām down for military service if I can get the citizenship though lmao 
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I would if I didnāt have a full time job and a family that depends on me.
Iād much rather wait a few years until Iām past the conscription age.
If I were just out of high schoolā¦. Sure! It would actually be a fun 4 months or even 1 year gap year (provided the training is good)