by Xin Yage

Taipei's bike-haring system hit a high in June with more than 800,000 trips. As fewer people use cars or motorbikes, city authorities want to develop the system.

Taipei (AsiaNews) - In order to rein in car and motorcycle pollution, Taipei residents are rediscovering the pleasure of cycling. Launched in March 2009, the city's YouBike bicycle-sharing system (公共 自行车 租赁 系统) gives people the option of picking up a bicycle at designated spots around the capital to use free of charge for half an hour. Anything above 30 minutes comes with a fee.

Integrated with the city's bus and subway network, YouBike has become a huge success. In recent months, its use has increased so much that the city government wants more. In June, more than 800,000 people used it, hitting a record 34,670 users on 7 June. As of this article, the system was used 5,099,380 times since 11 March 2009, this according to the YouBike website.

The goal is to increase bicycle use with more rental stops strategically located near subway and bus stops to enable people to cover short distances and favour environmentally friendly transport.

Currently, 68 YouBike rental stops dot the city with 2,324 bicycles available. An additional 94 stops and 3,000 bicycles are in the works between now and the end of this year.

Now the main challenge is to create more cycling lanes in and around the city. Many lanes run along the banks of the city's two main rivers, in parks and along the city's main roads, but heavy traffic or parked cars often force cyclists to ride on sidewalks, a practice that is banned and punished with a NDT 600 (US$ 20) fine.

Currently, three types of cycling lanes exist: those shared with pedestrians and those shared with scooters (for a total of 107 km), plus cycling-only lanes (29 km with 10 more planned).

However, the Taipei City Department of Transportation Division wants to increase the number of cycling-only lanes to meet the growing demand. Encouraging cycling would also reduce car traffic, cut greenhouse gasses and favour physical activity.

Although some users complain about the low number of cycling lanes, most say that "drivers and pedestrians show a lot of respect for cyclists, also because the bikes have a nice orange colour with the You-Bike smile logo. Taiwanese also like to ride outside the city, a classmate of mine even rented a bicycle to visit his grandmother in the mountains, "said Chen Lingyi (陈灵 谊), 17, from Taipei.

Bike sharing schemes exist in other cities in Taiwan as well: C-Bike in Kaohsiung and I-Bike in Taichung. Many more exist around the world but the biggest is in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province in mainland China (湖北, 武汉), which has 90,000 bikes. So ride a bike, for your health.

• taiwan
• bike
• sharing
• taipei
• success
• expansion