Upgraded YouBike service to start trial run in Gongguan Jan. 15
01/05/2020 By Chen Yi-hsuan and Joseph Yeh)
Taipei, Jan. 5 (CNA) An upgraded system of the public bicycle rental service provider YouBike will undergo a trial run in the Gongguan area of Taipei Jan. 15 for three months before the city considers replacing all the current YouBike bicycles with new ones, the city’s Department of Transportation has said.
There will be 1,800 new YouBike bike stands installed at 102 stations in the area during the trial run, accommodating 500 new bikes, as part of its “YouBike 2.0” project, the department said in a press release dated Jan. 3.
The Gongguan area near National Taiwan University was chosen as the site for the trial run as it is the most popular YouBike hotspot in Taiwan, according to the press release.
While there were 13,072 YouBikes served by around 400 stations in Taipei as of the end of 2017 since the service was first launched in 2012, the city government is still looking for room for improvement in the density of bike stations, the department said.
Currently, the bike payment system is powered by cables installed under the stations. The new system, however, will use built-in solar panels on the bicycles themselves, it said.
The new service will also feature smart control panels on the bikes.
The new changes mean the new bike stands will take up less space and will be easier to be installed, since they will no longer require to be powered by underground cables, it said.
The city estimated that the new power system will help to expand the 400 stands to 2,000 in the future, it added.
However, the new system will not be compatible with the existing one. To allow its users to tell the difference, the new bikes will be painted white and yellow instead of the orange and yellow of the current ones, it added.
The city will study user behavior from the three-month test run when drafting its plan to expand the “YouBike 2.0” system citywide, according to the press release.
