Bike-sharing in Taipei

The Straits Times, Singapore/Asia News Network

More people in Taipei are using bicycles provided by the city to complement their journeys by bus and MRT.

THE hottest product in food-mad and broadband-needy Taipei these days is the bicycle. Not any bicycle, but one of the 3,859 shiny two-wheelers of the YouBike bike-share scheme run by the municipal government and Giant, the world’s largest bike manufacturer based in central Taiwan. The scheme’s popularity shows how bicycles can be incorporated into an urban public transport system, by filling in the gaps the subway and buses cannot reach.