The bikesharing program in Taiepi, YouBike, adjusted the rental fee from free of charge 14 to NT$5 (about $0.15) for the first 30 min. To understand how the toll adjustment would have 15 changed the trip characteristics, this research collected and processed big data of more than 16 three million YouBike trips before and after the toll adjustment. By applying descriptive 17 statistics and data mining methods, we found 1) The number of trips dropped about 43% on 18 weekends and 14% on weekdays. This indicates that the price elasticity of weekend rentals was higher than that on weekday rentals. 2) The peak period, duration, and travel distance 20 were approximately the same, regardless of the toll adjustment. 3) The turnover rate 21 decreased from 9.6 to 7.3 times per day per bike, albeit it is still higher than many bikesharing 22 programs. 4) Most trips had one end next to the MRT stations or schools. This study identified 23 that minor toll adjustment could make a noticeable difference on the bike demand. The current 24 practice of locating YouBike stations by the MRT lines and major trip generation spots had 25 multi-faceted impacts. YouBike offered the first- and last-mile service of MRT, but also replaced 26 some short MRT trips because of time and/or money savings. YouBike additionally provided a 27 transport choice for trips without mass rapid transit (MRT) or bus services. As Taipei YouBike 28 has long been subsidized by the government, it is suggested that 1) innovated business 29 models be adopted for sustainable operation, and 2) more big data be released to the public 30 for research purposes.
