One of the biggest changes on the streets of Taipei over the past couple years is the rise of the YouBike bicycle-sharing system. Humble beginnings and growing pains have given way to a popular new form of public transit. The success has other countries interested in importing this homegrown Taiwanese service.
Every so often, there are complaints about the YouBike system.
It might be nitpicking, but the criticism is worth listening to. It has led to improvements that created a new public service worthy of export.
At 5 o’clock in the morning, this YouBike dispatcher is working to make sure there is an even distribution of bicycles for rush hour between 7:30 and 9 am. It’s the start of a typical day for a YouBike employee.
YouBike offers a new lifestyle option in the city. There are presently 158 rental stations and more than 5,000 bicycles. Over 50,000 rides are made on YouBikes each day.
John Ho
YouBike General Manager
Our (usage) is now the highest in the world. Daily turnover or usage of each bicycle averages more than 12, compared to eight in Paris or four to five in London and New York. So you can say that our turnover is quite high.
The popularity of YouBike is different from when the program first began four years ago. At that time, pessimism was rampant and many thought YouBike would lose money.
John Ho
YouBike General Manager
At the time, there were only 11 stations and 500 bicycles, all located in Xinyi District. After four years of promotion, there were still only 30,000 members. When we started, we didn’t have enough experience and were worried about losing these bicycles. We had a rule that users needed to supply two forms of ID to become a member and pay an annual membership fee of NT$1,500.
Over those four years, YouBike accumulated nearly NT$50 million in operating losses. This didn’t stop the Taipei City government, which aspired to develop a modern urban bike sharing system like Paris or New York. The city decided to increase rental stations throughout the 12 administrative districts of the city. But the huge losses incurred earlier meant no businesses were willing to take over operations.
In 2012, the Taipei City government finally convinced John Ho, the general manager of Taiwan’s best-known cycling brand, to give the YouBike system another try. Ho felt the first step should be making users happy from the moment they interact with the system.
John Ho
YouBike General Manager
We worked out the world’s friendliest and most convenient way of registering. Using a cell phone and an EasyCard, you can complete registration with no deposit and no annual fee. Just two to three minutes after registering you can begin riding.
After three months, the number of members topped 150,000. But with the additional users came new problems. Some people complained that after riding for a while the bike chain would fall off. This criticism led to soul-searching by a key YouBike parts supplier.
Wu Hsin-yuan
YouBike Chain Supplier
We have produced bicycle chains for many years. This is the first time that Chairman King Liu phoned to complain that our chains have some design defects, including loud noise and elongation. How could these problems emerge in YouBikes after just three months? In our hearts, we felt it was impossible that this problem was related to us.
Wu Hsin-yuan吳幸娟, the bike chain supplier, led a team to investigate the problem. She brought some of the defective bikes from Taipei to the company factory in Tainan. The team upgraded the tolerance on each chain and strengthened each link. YouBike, meanwhile, employs a repair staff of more than 70 people. Each person checks an average of 70 bikes a day.
John Ho
YouBike General Manager
At more than NT$10,000, the production cost of this bicycle is rather expensive. We thought it would be better to make a larger initial outlay rather than spending more for future maintenance and repairs.
Aside from hardware investments, software had to be created. And in the background there is customer service, maintenance and overall operations. Experience gained on the job became a key factor in YouBike’s success. When the contract expires in 2019, over seven years the Taipei City government is expected to have earned around NT$300 million from YouBike.
John Ho
YouBike General Manager
After the system became stable, we began looking at producing equipment for export. Over the past two years, Singapore, Malaysia, and Central and South American countries have approached us. We are currently in discussions with them. Now, we tell them that our first priority is doing this well in Taiwan. We are open to the idea of exporting this whole system as early as next year.
Initial skepticism and growing pains gave way to a successful bike sharing system. This has led to new opportunities for Taiwan.
城市拜客 理想國
最近一年，在台北街頭有項交通工具很夯，有人暱稱它是「小小黃」只要付少少的錢，甚?至有時不須付費，就可以乘上它，自由穿梭大街小巷，它就是YouBike微笑單車，也就是台北市的公共自行車。說起公共自行車，很多人都還記得，四年前，在台北市開始推動的時候，只有區區五百台卻?乏人問津，各界砲轟不斷。然而，從2012年開始?，YouBike竟然奇蹟似地崛起，目前已經有將近一百五十萬人成為它的會員，不但世?界各國前來取經，希望複製成功的經驗，也使得YouBike創造公共服務業行銷海外的?新商機。帶您一塊來了解。
