Taipei City’s YouBike public bicycle system will adopt a progressive pricing scheme and a new regulation barring users from renting bicycles from the same station within 15 minutes of returning them, in an effort to solve the frequently reported problems of bike shortages during peak hours.
Currently, YouBike members can use the bikes for free for the first 30 minutes and pay NT$10 for every subsequent 30 minutes.
The pricing system has created a loophole that sees some users returning their bicycle before the free period expires and then immediately rent the same bike or another one to avoid paying for the service.
The practice has resulted in a shortage of bikes at popular rental stops, particularly those next to busy MRT stations.
Under the new regulations, which are to take effect on Oct. 1, users would have to wait 15 minutes after returning a bike before they can rent from the same station, said the Taipei City Government’s Department of Transportation, which manages the bicycle sharing system.
“However, after considering the possibility that users might have to rent a different bike in the event that the first one is found to be malfunctioning, we will allow them a five-minute window to return it and take another one from the same station,” the department said.
The department said for the first four hours the rental fee would remain NT$10 per half hour, but it would rise to NT$20 between four and eight hours and then jump to NT$30 after that.
After the new pricing system takes effect, users who rent a bicycle for 48 consecutive hours will have to pay NT$3,430, compared with NT$950 under the current system.
According to statistics provided by the department, only 5,600 out of 1.12 million users rented a bike for more than four consecutive hours last month.
The city has established 108 YouBike rental stations and aims raise the number to 173 stations by the end of this year.
DEEPER REVIEW: After receiving 19 hospital reports of suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health applied for an epidemiological investigation A buffet restaurant in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) is to be fined NT$3 million (US$91,233) after it remained opened despite an order to suspend operations following reports that 32 people had been treated for suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. The health department said it on Tuesday received reports from hospitals of people who had suspected food poisoning symptoms, including nausea, vomiting, stomach pain and diarrhea, after they ate at an INPARADISE (饗饗) branch in Breeze Xinyi on Sunday and Monday. As more than six people who ate at the restaurant sought medical treatment, the department ordered the
A strong continental cold air mass and abundant moisture bringing snow to mountains 3,000m and higher over the past few days are a reminder that more than 60 years ago Taiwan had an outdoor ski resort that gradually disappeared in part due to climate change. On Oct. 24, 2021, the National Development Council posted a series of photographs on Facebook recounting the days when Taiwan had a ski resort on Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County. More than 60 years ago, when developing a branch of the Central Cross-Island Highway, the government discovered that Hehuanshan, with an elevation of more than 3,100m,
Taiwan’s population last year shrank further and births continued to decline to a yearly low, the Ministry of the Interior announced today. The ministry published the 2024 population demographics statistics, highlighting record lows in births and bringing attention to Taiwan’s aging population. The nation’s population last year stood at 23,400,220, a decrease of 20,222 individuals compared to 2023. Last year, there were 134,856 births, representing a crude birth rate of 5.76 per 1,000 people, a slight decline from 2023’s 135,571 births and 5.81 crude birth rate. This decrease of 715 births resulted in a new record low per the ministry’s data. Since 2016, which saw
SECURITY: To protect the nation’s Internet cables, the navy should use buoys marking waters within 50m of them as a restricted zone, a former navy squadron commander said A Chinese cargo ship repeatedly intruded into Taiwan’s contiguous and sovereign waters for three months before allegedly damaging an undersea Internet cable off Kaohsiung, a Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) investigation revealed. Using publicly available information, the Liberty Times was able to reconstruct the Shunxing-39’s movements near Taiwan since Double Ten National Day last year. Taiwanese officials did not respond to the freighter’s intrusions until Friday last week, when the ship, registered in Cameroon and Tanzania, turned off its automatic identification system shortly before damage was inflicted to a key cable linking Taiwan to the rest of
RSS