[sustran] Re: Guangzhou bans electric bicycles

[Sujit Patwardhan]

28 November 2006



Dear Lloyd,

I apologise for not expressing myself too well.

When I said "As an Indian I can see why China has taken the decision to ban
electric bikes" I only wanted to explain the mindset of our elite and
planners who are influenced more by them than by rational and logical
analysis of how best to plan urban transportation.

We are fighting this attitude through advocacy in support of NMT, Public
Transport, Cycling and Walking. In fact we make extensive use of your
excellent publication for GTZ on Non Motorized Traffic when trying to
convince policy makers to change their outdated ways of thinking.

I'm glad to see Sunny's comment, though made in a lighter vein, but he is
absolutely right.
We need to make cycling not just acceptable but also give it a high social
status for being a non-polluting, energy efficient and sustainable mode of
transport. Electric bikes are certainly far better in this respect than cars
or even motorcycles/scooters.

--
Sujit

On 11/28/06, Lloyd Wright <lfwright at usa.net> wrote:
>
> Yes, but why ban electric bicycles and not motorcycles as well (or cars
> for
> that matter)?
>
> ------ Original Message ------
> Received: Tue, 28 Nov 2006 05:27:23 AM EST
> From: "Sujit Patwardhan" <sujit at vsnl.com>
> To: "Global 'South' Sustainable Transport" <
> sustran-discuss at list.jca.apc.org>
> Subject: [sustran] Re: Guangzhou bans electric bicycles
>
> 28 November 2006
>
> As an Indian I can see why China has taken the decision to ban electric
> bikes. For Asian countries, particularly those with booming economies,
> cars
> have become an extension of a person's identity and a visual symbol of his
> upward mobile position in society. For years we have been living in
> conditions of the controlled economy. A Bajaj (Italian Vespa design)
> scooter
> had a waiting period of 7 to 8 years.
>
>
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-- 
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Sujit Patwardhan
sujit at vsnl.com
sujitjp at gmail.com

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