TAIPEI (Taiwan News) —With New Taipei City recently completing an upgrade to YouBike 2.0 with the deployment of 21,000 bicycles, many speculate city officials may be mulling a change to the current fee structure.

At the moment, New Taipei charges NT$10 (30 cents) per 30 minutes of YouBike usage, with rates increasing after 4 hours (NT$20) and 8 hours (NT$40) to discourage extended bike use. In contrast, Taipei City has implemented a free ride offer for the first 30 minutes to encourage the public to use green transportation.

New Taipei City Transportation Department said its observation of Taipei’s free ride program led to a sharp increase in usage from an original average daily ridership of 140,000 to 270,000. This is the equivalent of every YouBike being deployed multiple times throughout the day, per CNA.

More importantly, increased ridership impacts the city’s ability to dispatch and distribute YouBikes to high-traffic areas. Sharply increased usage in Taipei put a strain on the staff responsible for stocking, a key factor impacting commuters' ability to make transportation connections.

New Taipei City Transportation Department officials said more than 70% of YouBike users also use buses, MRT, and the monthly NT$1,200 commuter pass. It added that free rides for 30 minutes would not cause funding hardship, though a spike in ridership would occur as commuters who once walked short distances would be enticed by free YouBike usage.

City officials said the upgrade to YouBike 2.0 required an expansion to 1,500 YouBike stations.