End of a another Taipei Cycle Show week and a great kick off for the Velo-city conference for Taipei 2016.

Lots of photos and contacts to talk about.

But if there is a theme of the week it is the extraordinary growth of the public bike share scheme Youbike (or U-bike) which seems to be liberating the city’s citizens. A 30% growth in cycling appears to have rocketing Youbike use at its heart. Not least because they have cracked combined ticketing with metro and bus services, the ultimate in convenience. A lot of cities could learn from that.

I may have stretched the “rise” a bit much by trying to haul one up one of the forest covered mountains that cover almost a third of the city. My knees and back rebelled, because the gears are not really aimed at scaling the hillsides, but the views were worth the pain, and the walking.

More updates next week.