Taipei City Government

The Taipei City YouBike system was implemented city-wide in 2011, providing citizens with the first and last-mile transit service. To further enhance citizens’ convenience, the pilot program of YouBike 2.0 will be implemented at the Gongguan area starting from January 15, offering a total of 1,800 docks and 500 new YouBikes across 102 stations for the public to experience and use.

According to Taipei City Government’s Department of Transportation, the number of YouBike stations in Taipei City reached 400 in late 2017, totaling 13,072 YouBikes. Each station’s service radius is about 200-500m, allowing the system to service at least 90% of the city’s plains, meaning that citizens may reach a YouBike station within a 5 to 10-minute walking distance. Considering the fact that the YouBike stations require access to municipal power, and an economy of scale must be reached in order to establish a station, the existing conditions are not conducive for expanding the number of stations.

Therefore, the YouBike 2.0 program is launched to provide the public with more convenient YouBike services. Adopting a lightweight dock and onboard computer design, the new bicycles reduce the limitations of rental station construction. In the future, the bicycles’ onboard computer will be used as the operating platform for renting and returning them.

Besides text display, bicycle rental services can also be achieved by scanning the QR code. Considering YouBike 2.0’s unconventional design, it will not be compatible with the existing YouBike rent and return system, therefore the pearl white and yellow color has been applied, and each dock can only accommodate one bicycle, distinguishing it from the older version YouBike. Furthermore, the YouBike official website now also features YouBike 2.0-related information for the convenience of users.

In order to gauge the public’s level of acceptance and feedback on YouBike 2.0 so as to use them for future reference, as well as in consideration of the higher usage rate of rental stations in the vicinity of MRT Gongguan Station, the pilot program of YouBike 2.0 will be implemented in the Gongguan region and NTU campus for 3 months starting on January 15. The outcome of the pilot program will be taken into consideration during the subsequent evaluation of the feasibility of the city-wide implementation of YouBike 2.0.