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Notes on Estimating the Number of YouBike Bicycles in Taiwan
With a Few Assumptions I am drinking soy milk at a breakfast shop near the station.It is still early, before full wakefulness arrives. In front of me, people on YouBike pass one after another.Some wear suits.Others carry backpacks. Each ... -
Notes on the Optimal Placement of YouBike in Taiwan
Why It Is Almost Always There In Taipei and in Kaohsiung, the same scene appears again and again while walking.Past a corner, at the edge of a park, in the open space before a station.Yellow and white bicycles are lined up. What is strik... -
Notes on Measuring YouBike’s Fuel-Saving Effect in Taiwan
Or, on the Law of Conservation of Energy On the morning news, a figure from the Taipei Department of Transportation caught my ear. “YouBike, 200,000 rides per day.” It is a large number.But what stayed with me was something else. What do... -
Notes on the Administrative Commitment Behind YouBike in Taiwan
A Focus on the Last Mile Good design was in place.The bicycles were durable.Daily operations functioned. Even with all this aligned,many shared bicycle systems still failed. The reason was simple. They never secured permissionto remain i... -
Notes on the Bicycle Maker Behind YouBike in Taiwan
GIANT as a partner Across the world, shared bicycle systems rarely lasted. In China and in parts of Europe, a brief boom was followed by silence.What remained were bicycle graveyards. Frames fell over.Parts broke.No one came to manage th... -
Notes on the Operational Craft Behind YouBike in Taiwan
Field Operations No IT Company Could Sustain Many shared bicycle systems around the world followed the same path. They failed in design.They collapsed in hardware.In the end, field operations stopped working. In the first article, I wrot... -
Notes on the Design Logic of YouBike in Taiwan
The Decision to Use Docks Shared bicycles are, globally, a system that often fails. In China and in parts of Europe,a brief boom was followed by abandonment. Bicycles piled up on sidewalks.They fell over.They broke. Uncollected, they bec... -
Notes on Giant in the Background
The World’s Largest Bicycle Manufacturer Taichung, Dajia. It is not a tourist destination.It does not look like an industrial zone either. Rice fields stretch out.Low buildings stand in rows.It is a town that could be anywhere. And yet, ... -
Notes on the History of YouBike in Taiwan
How a Public Bicycle Became Part of the City Walking through Taipei, yellow-and-white bicycles are always somewhere in view.At street corners.Near MRT exits.In front of university gates. They are so ordinary that it is easy to forget the... -
Notes on Taiwan’s Bicycle Culture
Cycling Island Taiwan Taiwan is often described as an island that invented the bicycle.It is home to global brands such as Giant and Merida.Many high-end bicycles sold in Europe and North America are made here. Yet for a long time, bicyc...
