Xinyi District’s (信義) public rental bike system has seen a rapid increase in membership numbers this month as well as a 30 percent increase in usage rate, after the introduction of a discount scheme that involves 30 minutes of free time, according to the Taipei City Government’s Bureau of Transportation.
The system had been promoted as an alternative transit system for Taipei City residents in the face of rising gasoline prices.
According to department official Shen Hui-hung (沈慧虹), the department’s partner in the Youbike system, Giant, first implemented the discount scheme at the beginning of this month.
Photo: Tsai Wei-chi, Taipei Times
“With the system in place for three weeks, we have already seen an increase of Youbike usage by 30 percent and a weekly usage rate of 1,329 people,” Shen said, adding that hundreds of people register for the system each day.
Shen said the Youbike system is planning to increase the number of locations from 11 to 162 within three years, giving it a fleet of 5,300 bikes for rent and extending its service to cover the whole city.
Thirty new locations have already finished installing hardware and are planned to be available to residents by the end of the month, Shen said.
Once these 30 additional locations are in service, there would be approximately 1,500 bikes available to Taipei residents, she added.
Members of the Youbike system are be granted the first 30 minutes free, even if they are in the service area of the soon-to-be-made-available 30 stations, Shen said.
Meanwhile, as part of a promotional campaign in accordance with the city government’s planned “World Car Free Day” on Sept. 22, the department said it is offering the person who uses the Youbike system, the MRT system and the city’s bus system most often a prize of an EasyCard with a preloaded value of NT$10,000.
Although the promotional campaign is entering its final two week period — it lasts through this month — official records posted on the Youbike Facebook page show that the leading person has only logged on to the Youbike service 32 times. Hence, a close call would not be impossible.
However, the department has said that each usage of the Youbuke service must be at least 5 minutes or longer and a bike cannot be rented at the same location twice.
Participants of the event must first register at the official event Web site (www.2012taipeicarfreeday.com.tw/find), the department said.
Should there be a tie for first place, the prize would be awarded to the participant who registered first, the department said.
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
RISING TOURISM: A survey showed that tourist visits increased by 35 percent last year, while newly created attractions contributed almost half of the growth Changhua County’s Lukang Old Street (鹿港老街) and its surrounding historical area clinched first place among Taiwan’s most successful tourist attractions last year, while no location in eastern Taiwan achieved a spot in the top 20 list, the Tourism Administration said. The listing was created by the Tourism Administration’s Forward-looking Tourism Policy Research office. Last year, the Lukang Old Street and its surrounding area had 17.3 million visitors, more than the 16 million visitors for the Wenhua Road Night Market (文化路夜市) in Chiayi City and 14.5 million visitors at Tainan’s Anping (安平) historical area, it said. The Taipei 101 skyscraper and its environs —
ENROLLMENT STRATEGIES: NTNU focuses on English instruction to attract foreign students, and helps them with employment and internships, its president said The number of foreign students in the nation’s colleges and universities hit a five-year high last year, with National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) topping the list with the most international students, Ministry of Education data showed. Last year, 123,188 international students attended Taiwanese colleges and universities, 3,259 more than the previous academic year, the data showed. NTNU had the most international students, with 7,648 students, followed by the National Taiwan University’s 6,249, it showed. NTNU yesterday said that international students accounted for 12.05 percent of its degree students last year. The percentage of overseas Chinese students at the university has also been the highest
Taiwan on Friday said a New Zealand hamburger restaurant has apologized for a racist remark to a Taiwanese customer after reports that it had first apologized to China sparked outrage in Taiwan. An image posted on Threads by a Taiwanese who ate at Fergburger in Queenstown showed that their receipt dated Sunday last week included the words “Ching Chang,” a racial slur. The Chinese Consulate-General in Christchurch in a statement on Thursday said it had received and accepted an apology from the restaurant over the incident. The comment triggered an online furor among Taiwanese who saw it as an insult to the
RSS