Overview
Taipei Urbanism has research resource pages that cover Taipei’s bus lane network, bike lane network, and metro (MRT) network. These pages include translations of planning documents, analysis of various infrastructure types, and galleries with images and videos from Taipei.
Taipei Bus Lane Network
Taipei has a “chess board” network of bus lanes that crisscrosses the city and is over 60 kilometers long. Bus lanes have been crucial for making buses a fast and reliable option for many trips in Taipei. Bus lanes are also helpful for providing redundancy for Taipei Metro in case of natural disasters. For instance, in 2001 typhoon Nari flooded Taipei Metro and caused months of gridlocked traffic while the red line was being repaired. The bus lanes cover several important North-South and East-West corridors in the city. There are currently add/extend bus lanes on Roosevelt Road, Chongqing North Road, and Dunhua North/South Road.
Taipei Urbanism has a collection of photos and videos of the bus lane network in Taipei and has also created translated versions of bus lane expansion plans from the Taipei City Government Department of Transportation.
Taipei Bike Network
Taipei has hundreds of kilometers of safe cycle paths. The two main categories of safe cycle paths are sidewalk level cycle tracks and sidewalk level shared use paths. Sidewalk level cycle tracks are bike lanes that are painted on wide sidewalks and will occasionally feature black asphalt for smoother riding. Sidewalk level shared use paths are wide sidewalks where cycling has been legalized, but no markings such as bike lanes have been added. Both of these bike path types are very safe to ride on, but speeds can be slower during congested periods due to heavy pedestrian and bike traffic.
Faster cycling is possible by biking on the street, but that means sharing the road with Taipei’s numerous scooters. For street cycling it can be best to try to taking the alleyways instead of the large boulevards. The alleyways have much less through traffic and see slower speeds due to traffic calming measures implemented on these residential streets such as turn restrictions, one way streets, and overall narrower street widths.
Taipei Urbanism has a collection of photos and videos of the cycle network in Taipei and has also created translated versions of bike lane expansion plans from the Taipei City Government Department of Transportation. These can be accessed on our Taipei bike research resources page (coming soon).
Greater Taipei Metro and Rail Network
The greater Taipei area is served by several rail networks. Taipei Metro has 131 stations and trains that come every 2-3 minutes for much of the day. There are other Metro systems that connect Taipei to the greater region such as Taoyuan Metro. Taoyuan Metro has 21 stations and two rail services (local and express) that connect Taipei with Taoyuan International Airport and the city of Taoyuan. New Taipei Metro (not pictured on the above map) runs the Danhai light rail line with 11 stations and has two other light rail lines under construction. Taipei Metro’s Yellow Line (Circular Line) may also be transferred to New Taipei Metro, but the details have not been worked out yet.
Taiwan Railways and Taiwan High Speed Rail tend to serve more long distance travel to and from Taipei. Both services stop at Taipei Main Station and Nangang Station in Taipei. Taipei Main station is largest rail hub in Taiwan with three MRT lines (Taipei Metro Red and Blue lines and Taoyuan Metro), Taiwan Railways service, and Taiwan High Speed Rail service. There are several expansion plans for the Metro systems in the greater Taipei area. Translated versions of these plans can be found on our Taiwan rail resources page (Coming Soon).