How do I get around Taipei?

The MRT is your default. Six lines cover the Taipei basin from Danshui on the north coast down to Taipei Zoo, Nangang in the east over to Taoyuan Airport in the west. Trains come every 3-5 minutes at peak, 6-8 off-peak, and the system runs approximately 6:00am to midnight daily. Stations feel almost aggressively air-conditioned, a sharp relief when you step in from 34°C and 86% humidity outside. All signage and announcements run in Mandarin, Taiwanese, Hakka, and English. An EasyCard from any 7-Eleven or Family Mart costs NT$100 as a refundable deposit. Load NT$500 and you're covered for 2-3 days of heavy use. Taipei Main Station to Taipei 101/World Trade Center costs NT$25. The Wenhu line from Zhongshan to the National Palace Museum runs NT$30. Worth noting, the MRT bans eating and drinking inside stations and on trains, with fines starting at NT$1,500. You will see enforcement officers.

YouBike 2.0 fills the gap between the MRT exit and wherever you're actually going. The city maintains roughly 1,400 docking stations, one every 300-400 meters in the core districts. Register your EasyCard at any dock kiosk (there's an English toggle) and rides cost NT$5 for the first 30 minutes, NT$10 per half-hour after. Bike lanes along Dunhua South Road and through Daan Forest Park have raised curbs separating you from scooter traffic. Mornings along the park paths still carry the smell of damp earth and frangipani before the heat builds. On foot, individual neighborhoods work well. The grid between Zhongxiao East Road and Xinyi Road is flat, lined with banyan trees, and you can navigate Dongqu or Yongkang Street without checking a map. Sidewalks are continuous and unobstructed in the newer eastern districts. The trade-off is that walking between neighborhoods means 25-30 minutes through stretches with no shade and aggressive scooter turning lanes.

Yellow cabs are metered. NT$70 flagfall for the first 1.25 kilometers, NT$5 per 200 meters after that. Taipei Main Station to Shilin Night Market runs about NT$200-250. Drivers rarely speak English, so keep your destination in Chinese characters on your phone. Google Maps provides accurate Chinese-character addresses you can show directly. LINE Taxi works like Uber with upfront pricing and card payment in-app. Uber technically operates here but routes through local taxi companies after 2017 regulatory changes, so the experience is identical to a regular cab with an extra booking step. Between midnight and 6am, when the MRT has stopped, taxis add NT$20 to the fare. A cross-city ride at 2am still lands under NT$400. To be fair, taxis in Taipei are honest compared to most Asian capitals. Meter tampering is rare. The main annoyance is drivers who refuse short fares near MRT stations during rush hour.

Buses cover what the MRT misses and cost NT$15 per section on EasyCard (tap on and off). Google Maps handles Taipei bus routing with real-time arrival estimates accurate to 1-2 minutes. The Red 30 from Jiantan MRT to Yangmingshan National Park takes 40 minutes and you'll feel the temperature drop 3-4°C as the road climbs through camphor forest. That said, buses on Zhongxiao East Road during evening rush sit in the same traffic the MRT runs beneath. Skip them for any route with a direct MRT connection. One practical note. The Taoyuan Airport MRT express connects both terminals to Taipei Main Station in 35 minutes for NT$160. It runs 6:00am to 11:00pm. After that, airport taxis to central Taipei cost NT$1,000-1,200 depending on your hotel district.