Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an expects to resume the first 30-minute YouBike free policy in January next year, but was criticized by former Taipei Mayor Ke Wenzhe for "spreading money to please voters and going back."

(Photo by reporter Yang Xinhui)

[Reporter Yang Xinhui/Taipei Report] Taipei Mayor Jiang Wanan is expected to resume the free policy for the first 30 minutes of YouBike in January next year, but was criticized by former Taipei Mayor Ke Wenzhe for "spreading money to please voters and going backwards." Jiang Wanan said today that the first 30 minutes Free is to encourage everyone to ride YouBike to achieve energy saving and carbon reduction. Although people may worry that there will be no bikes to borrow or no parking posts to return, they must overcome problems and not waste food because of choking. That is to say, transparent data analysis is required to make it more efficient Configuration.

Ke Wenzhe said on Facebook yesterday that "fiscal discipline" is a political value and a political conscience, because there is no free lunch in the world, and the city treasury is not an inexhaustible cornucopia. When Jiang Wanan announced that from January next year, Taipei will When restoring YouBike's first 30-minute free policy, you must ask "Where does the money come from?"

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Ke Wenzhe pointed out that the purpose of YouBike is to promote green transportation, to encourage people to take the MRT and buses, and to take the YouBike for the last mile to connect. At that time, the survey found that if it was all free, many people would use YouBike as a sports and leisure equipment. 70% of people use Youbike only once a month. People who really need Youbike to commute are hard to find. The ultimate goal of promoting green transportation cannot be achieved, and the maintenance cost has also been greatly increased.

Ke Wenzhe explained that although the user received five yuan for the first 30 minutes, the government had to subsidize another five yuan. During his tenure, the North City Government had to subsidize more than 200 million yuan a year. Now that the number of stations and vehicles has increased even more, The expenditure and pressure on the city treasury brought about by all free services must be doubled at least to 500 million a year. Seeing that New Taipei City and Kaohsiung City have canceled free services, Taipei City has to please voters and spend a lot of money. Promotion has no real benefit.

Taipei City Government Deputy Spokesman Hsu Cheng-sin responded that in order to improve the overall environment of Taipei City, Mayor Chiang actively took stock of municipal resources to make the most effective use of them after taking office. Taipei City’s tax revenues were divided to support municipal promotion as a priority, and fiscal discipline was followed to repay debts moderately. There is no problem of large coins, and the Transportation Bureau has planned to add 1,780 vehicles on a small scale in the first half of 2012 to reduce the lack of cars to borrow, and cooperate with the Information Bureau to further optimize the scheduling capacity through big data analysis.

Xu Zhengxuan pointed out that after the policy is launched in January next year, in addition to encouraging the existing groups to increase the number of times of use, it will attract groups such as shopping, leisure, and sports, and expand the use of green transportation. It is estimated that more than 27 million new people will benefit each year. Those who take the current two-way bus, MRT, and transfer to YouBike and those who hold commuter tickets already enjoy the first 30 minutes free of charge, accounting for 50% of the total rental trips. The annual subsidy budget is estimated to be only 223 million yuan, an increase of 134 million to 370 million yuan. The 500 million questioned by the outside world.

Xu Zhengxuan said that in terms of social benefits, it is estimated that about 7,000 tons of carbon emissions can be reduced each year, and the carbon emission absorption of about 18 Daan Forest Parks can effectively reduce carbon emissions and air pollution, which will help Taipei City move towards a low-carbon city.