Taipei Leads Asia with Millions of Bike Rentals

Ralph Jennings TAIPEI— Taipei has emerged as a role model for Asian cities, with a public bike rental program that has reached 20 million trips per year because of low rates and an abundance of bikes throughout the crowded Taiwanese capital. Envoys from Tokyo and Singapore, two other dense Asian cities, have visited Taipei to ask the city’s transportation department how the rental program, known as YouBike, has developed. Interest surged after the seven-year-old program suddenly saw rentals double from 2013 to 2014. Biking took off in Taipei because more than 30 percent of people...