Quote : http://www.star2.com/living/2016/02/23/taipei-shaping-a-cycle-friendly-city/
By SIOK HUI LEONG
It was 3am when Helen Chen called it a night after hanging out with friends in downtown Taipei. The buses and trains had stopped running and Chen doesn’t own a car. Unperturbed, the 34-year-old strolled to a bike-share docking station two blocks away, grabbed a bike with a quick tap of her EasyCard (stored-value smartcard) on the automated kiosk, and pedalled the 5km distance home. She reached home safe and sound in barely 30 minutes and the bike rental cost her NTD10 (RM1.23).
“I ride YouBike (the bike-share’s name) everywhere. It’s convenient and cheap,” says Chen, a Taipei-based product designer who grew up in Sydney. Chen echoes the sentiments of over four million registered users of YouBike in Taipei today.
Launched in 2009 with a modest 11 stations and 500 bikes, YouBike now has 214 stations with 7,000 bicycles, strategically placed next to MRT stations, bus stops and tourist attr...