[sustran] Guangzhou bans electric bicycles

[Lloyd Wright]

http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/39099/story.htm

China's Easy Riders Deride Electric Bike Ban 
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CHINA: November 22, 2006
 
BEIJING - A ban on battery-powered bicycles in the southern China city of
Guangzhou has left tens of thousands of owners grounded without compensation
and angered vendors who face lost business, local media reported on Tuesday. 
 
The ban, effective a day after police announced it last week but allowing a
"15-day education period", was aimed at preventing electric-powered bikes from
becoming "the main mode of transport", Xinhua reported. "If such bikes are
permitted, this will certainly rapidly increase the burden on roads," Xinhua
quoted police as saying. 

Guangzhou, a booming Pearl River Delta city of about 10 million often choked
with traffic jams, was China's fifth-fastest growing car market in the first
half of 2006, state media has reported. 

The city has about 870,000 cars, Xinhua reported last week, growing at about
150,000 every year. Police also cited safety concerns and the inability to
effectively enforce traffic regulations on electric-bike riders. 

"These riders have never received any special riding training or tests, so
their driving skills are very difficult to guarantee." 

Police added that compensation would not be given to bike owners as they had
been urged "through the media" not to buy bikes and in any case, the Guangzhou
government had "never permitted" them. 

At least 100,000 residents ride electric bikes every day in Guangzhou, which
at 1,000-3,000 yuan (US$125-US$380) are a cheap and increasingly popular form
of transport in Chinese cities. 

But several local governments have banned the bikes which require no licence
and are exempt from registration fees. 

Beijing has confined electric bikes to its outer suburbs, although riders
regularly flout the regulation. 

Over 100 electric bike manufacturers, vendors and riders held a rally in a
Guangzhou hotel to protest the ban, the Yangcheng Evening News, a Guangzhou
daily, reported. 

"Allow the orderly and healthy development of electric bicycles and don't
simply kill them off!" the paper quoted protesters as saying. 

The group issued a joint communique, saying the authorities "had not fully
consulted the will of the people". 

Construction Ministry Vice Minister Qiu Baoxing earlier this year slammed city
planners for pandering to private car owners and ignoring the needs of
ordinary pedal cyclists, saying China should remain the "kingdom of bicycles".


Qiu lamented that some Chinese cities were cutting back on bicycle lanes in
order to make more room for cars, even as some Western cities were building
more lanes for cyclists. 

REUTERS NEWS SERVICE