How Taoyuan Airport MRT line can help to increase the number of cyclists and reduce the number of mo
Since the opening of the Taoyuan Airport MRT line in March 2017, the new line made the airport transit easier, faster and more reliable between Taoyuan Airport and Taipei Main Station. However, the Taoyuan MRT has way more potential than just providing a link between the airport and the city center. Thanks to its commuter trains, it actually provides a rapid transit service between Taipei City and the suburbs, including mainly Sanchong, Xinzhuang, Taishan, Linkou. These districts are responsible for a big portion of cars and scooters within Taipei, as many of their residents work in the city and the majority of them choose to travel by their own motorized vehicle. So would it be possible to shift those people from cars and scooters to other transit modes, such as bicycle and/or public transportation, thus ease some of the traffic problems inside Taipei?
Bike + MRT + Bike
No doubt that due to the long distance it is not realistic to ask people to bike all the way from their home to Taipei. And as the new MRT line runs further from the traditional residential areas, without proper feeder bus service it is also hard to convince people to wait for the feeder bus, travel to the MRT station and then wait for the MRT again (since the timetables are not well-connected with each other), rather than just driving directly into Taipei even if there is traffic jam along the road.
But what if people could bike to the MRT station, travel with their bikes on the MRT and then continue their ride within Taipei?
There are several benefits to choose this option: commuters can arrive punctually to the MRT station according to its timetable, so they will not lose time waiting for the metro and then they can travel into Taipei without wasting time in the traffic jam. Later they can just continue their ride inside Taipei immediately after they arrived to Taipei Main Station, without pressure to miss the connecting bus or other MRT that will eventually result to be late from work or school.
This solution might also help to better utilize the commuter train service on the MRT Airport line, which is currently seems empty most of the time. It might be possible that more people would willing to take the metro if they can travel with their bikes on it, as bicycle provides a flexible and fast transportation mode for the first and last mile, while the MRT provides a rapid transit in between. Some of you might ask, why don’t just promote Ubike + MRT, but in my opinion for the morning commute Ubike might be unreliable if the passengers find empty Ubike stations. And unreliability is one of the worst scenario for morning commuters, because every minutes count to get to work or school on time. Also, if someone is a regular biker, than it might be better if he/she can use his/her own bike, and leave Ubike for those who doesn’t have a bike or only want to use it occasionally.
Bikes inside the MRT?
Due to the current regulations, Taoyuan MRT Corporation only allows bicycles into the trains if they are folded and properly packaged before entering the station. However, this is not the most commuter friendly solution and it is hard to believe that anyone would like to spend time on folding their bikes before and after travelling with the MRT. Also, there are several examples, including foreign cities and Taipei MRT itself (despite of its strict regulations on safety and cleanness) that bikes can be safely transported inside the metro even if they are not folded up. Major European and American cities also allow bike on their suburban railway services to help commuters’ daily transit.
Actually, in my opinion t
he type of service provided by the Taoyuan Airport MRT commuter trains is more similar to a suburban railway, than to a regular metro service (trains run in every 15 minutes, the line connects the city center with the surrounding districts, cities and residential areas), therefore the company should take a look on similar suburban rail services around the world, rather than just copy a regular metro management scheme. Of course further analysis is required to know exactly how many bikes should be allowed or if the interior design of the trains could be revised in order to make more space for the passengers with bikes.
But I hope that in the near future the company will give a try to see how many extra passengers it can gain by allowing bicycles (without folding them up) on its trains. By doing so it can actually increase the number of passengers (I am sure that it will not result any decrease in the number of current ones) and it can also help to reduce some of the scooters or cars from the roads of Taipei and New Taipei City, which could be a great help for the local environment as well.