Global Trend: Taiwan YouBike System Helps Make Tawian Greener

Taiwan is a small country but with a heavy pollution because of the cars and scooters. In all these years, the government has been trying to solve this problem. YouBike becomes one of the results of our concerns for the pollution problem.

YouBike system is a public bike sharing service in Taipei City. You can usually find them near an MRT station. In 2016, service stations for the bike system are available in most of the northern cities in Taiwan. The system is easy, convenient, and cheap. In Taipei City, rental is NT$5 for the first 30 minutes of use, and in New Taipei City, Taichung City and Changhua County, the rental is actually free for the first 30 minutes.

This image shows that the air pollution in Taipei is increasing.

The Pollution in Taiwan is getting more and more serious. Perhaps some reasons are because of the factories in China. However, Taiwan, itself, also caused a lot of pollution over the years. For example, in some big cities such as Taipei and Taichung, people are more willing to drive or ride a scooter instead of walking, cycling, or taking public transportation. In addition to cars and scooters, the factories in Taiwan also polluted the environment, not only the air, but also water. Some factories just dumped their industrial wastes into the rivers eventually harming the ocean.

The dark water from the factory has been dumped into the river.

In order to solve this problem of pollution, the Taiwanese government established the UBike system, and that really helps improve the environment. Imagine that you are walking along the street, and there are hundreds of scooters, cars and trucks. The smoke from the engines can really cause problems to your health. However, with the help of the UBike system, people could stop riding scooters, and instead use the UBikes, which would in turn help the issue of air pollution.

UBikes have also changed people's lives. People get more chances to ride the bike and exercise themselves, and families get more time to be together. For example, I sometimes go biking with my aunts and cousins during the weekend. I really enjoy biking, and it helps us have a healthier life.

In conclusion, I think that the government in Taiwan is trying to solve the problem. However, I believe that they can help more. For instance, people in Japan and China have more desire to ride a bike because of the cycle path they've recently built. If we also build a cycle path in Taiwan, it will be even safer to cycle in the city and people will be more willingly to ride a bike. We all hope that Taiwan can have a better and healthier environment for Taiwanese people to have a better life.

The cycle path in Onomichi with a perfect scenery.