Three northern cities to offer NT$5 YouBike rewards in 2026

Taipei, Dec. 11 (CNA) Transportation departments in Taipei, New Taipei and Taoyuan on Thursday announced a 2026 plan to offer NT$5 (US$0.16) to YouBike riders who rent from full stations or return bicycles to empty ones, in a bid to ease station congestion.

YouBike spokesperson Lin Yuan-yu (林苑毓) said the plan will start with a six-month trial from Jan. 1 to June 30 next year.

All YouBike users in the three cities will automatically receive the NT$5 YouBike-exclusive money reward in the EasyCard they used to rent the bike, before 7 a.m. the day after the qualifying trip.

Lin said the existing 10-minute wait between returning and renting a bike will not affect eligibility. Riders who return a bike to an empty station and then rent from a full station within that time can receive two rewards.

As all three cities already subsidize riders for the first 30 minutes, the reward will only apply to time beyond the initial free period.

Lin added that the reward will expire 90 days after being issued and will apply only to manual YouBikes, not electric models.

Also on Thursday, officials announced that all riders will be required to obtain YouBike insurance to use the public service starting next year.

Hsieh Lin-ting (謝霖霆), an official with Taipei's transportation department, said 90 percent of riders in the three cities are already insured. In Taipei, roughly 400,000 users remain uninsured, and the city will begin contacting them to ensure they can use both regular and electric YouBikes in 2026, Hsieh said.