This month has seen the launch of two bike-sharing programs in Taiwan - the first in the southern port town of Kaohsiung City, called C-bike, and the second in Taipei, called YouBike.
In Kaohsiung, the service (pictured above) offers 1,500 bikes and 20 stations with plans to expand to 4,500 bikes and 50 stations by the end of May. According to the Kaohsiung City press release, "The system has been constructed on a build- operate-transfer (BOT) basis at a cost of NT$90 million ($2.58 million). Some NT$15 million ($444,000) was put up by both the EPA's air pollution control fund and the city government, and another NT$60 million ($1.77 million) came from the central government's economic stimulus package. Tung Li Development Co. has been commissioned by the government to operate the system over the next five years.
"Members will be able to use the bike for free for the first 30 minutes and will be charged NT$10 ($0.30) for each subsequent 30-minute period for a maximum of NT$230 ($6.80) for 12+ hours."
Taipei's YouBike presently has five stations with an indeterminate number of bikes from the Website (anybody know?). The first 30 minutes are free with additional time at NT$10 ($0.30) per 30 minute period.
Congratulations, Taiwan!
image credits: Yam Blog and David on Formosa
8 comments:
Kaohsiung info
pictures: http://blog.yam.com/dangji/article/19618508
prices: http://www.ksepb.gov.tw/dispatch/contents.aspx?id=20090310144524223087
official website:
http://www.c-bike.com.tw/
The bike-sharing program in Kaohsiung City is called "C-Bike".
The official website in English version is "http://www.c-bike.com.tw/eng/knowing.html".
Gary
There will probably be 500 bikes in the testing stage.
i heard the Taipei U-bike scheme requires you to swipe a credit card, which means that poor people, young people and people like me cannot use the system
seems they should have alternative for non-credit-card wannabe cyclists
i heard the Taipei U-bike scheme requires you to swipe a credit card, which means that poor people, young people and people like me cannot use the system
seems they should have alternative for non-credit-card wannabe cyclists
According to my understanding, Taipei U-bike is using the the card that you can use for Bus and Metro in Taipei... not credit card...
I've been using Taipei's ubike for a couple days and it is pretty amazing. It's true you need an IC-chip credit-card to register your easypass card, but you can also buy long-term passes for cash at the Ubike service center near City Hall MRT station starting in may.
Go and buy a bike, they're cheap!
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