The Hsinchu County Government yesterday said that the county’s free-bicycle program is in trouble due to low usage rates, missing bikes and its inability to step up promotion for the program.
The county government’s tourism bureau said it established government-funded bicycle renting stations in April 2012 in response to the planned availability of three rail networks — the Taiwan High Speed Railway (THSR), the Taiwan Railways Administration’s (TRA) Neiwan Branch Line (內灣支線) and a planned mass rapid transit system in the Hsinchu area.
The bureau said plans for a mass rapid transit system were considered as early as 1999, but were deemed financially unviable, leading to considerations of a cross-county light-rail system between Hsinchu County and Miaoli County in 2006.
Photo: Liao Hsueh-ju, Taipei Times
While the Ministry of Transportation and Communications dismissed the project in 2010, the county government is still applying to the central government for funding for a group rapid transit system.
There have been four rental stations set up under the program, including the Hsinchu County Government building, the culture center, the Sinwawu Hakka Preservation Center and THSR Hsinchu Station, the county government said, adding that an additional station for the Jhudong Township (竹東) TRA station’s comic dream park was later established.
The bureau has since reported low bike usage rates, recording seven to eight people using bikes at THSR Hsinchu station on a daily basis, and 20 people using the bikes across all five stations.
Of the 110 bikes available for rent, more than 30 bikes had gone missing, the bureau said.
While Tree Party Jhubei District representative Hsu Yu-kuan (許育綸) said that the county government should step up promotion of the bike program, the county government said that it was constrained by funding and a lack of human resources.
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