Department of Transportation

Taipei City’s Department of Transportation (hereinafter referred to as “DOT”) carried out a telephone survey on those who are 15 years old and older and have a permanent address registered in Taipei City, in the hope of understanding the views of Taipei City’s residents on its cycling safety advocacy. The result shows that from the perspective of non-cyclists, the most annoying cyclists’ misbehavior is cycling on arcades or sidewalks (36.9%), followed by zigzagging in traffic (23.2%), and not cycling in designated lanes (21.3%).
Taipei City is becoming a bike-friendly environment, and the number of cyclists has also gradually increased. With the increasing trend of bicycle usage, there are currently 6,406 public bicycles from 196 YouBike stations in the City. YouBike has become the public’s favorable mode of transport; the number of users even exceeded 40 million in March 2015. As Taipei City gradually becomes a vibrant cycling city, its cycling behavior has to be transformed to make it a bike-friendly city.
The DOT advises cyclists to adopt pedestrian-first friendly cycling behavior, and comply with the following rules: (1) refrain from cycling on arcades; (2) walk the bike in crowded places; (3) say ‘excuse me!’ before passing pedestrians, and say ‘thank you!’ when slowly passing from the left; (4) do not ring the bell to hasten others; (5) do not cycle in reverse direction; and (6) walk the bike on sidewalks near school compounds during school starting and ending hours. In addition, penalty points shall be imposed on YouBike users who do not give way to pedestrians (such as cycling on arcades, failing to walk the bike on sidewalks near school compounds during school starting and ending hours), misbehavior (such as drunk riding and maliciously occupying bicycle), violations (such as running red light and carrying passenger(s)), to mitigate pedestrian-vehicle conflicts and make Taipei City a bike-friendly city.

2015-08-31