Electric bikes banned in Chinese city to make room for cars
Someone thought there were too many electric bicycles in the southern China city of Guangzhou, so officials banned them. Now tens of thousands of commuters are left walking, finding a traditional bike, or buying a car. Officials apparently don't want the electric bikes becoming the "main mode" of transportation since the roads will be clogged with a fast-growing population of cars. Critics of bikes also say the riders are not trained nor are fees required. More than 100 bike manufacturers protested, and one official said the city was pandering to car owners. The city has about 870,000 cars and around 100,000 electric bike riders.
[Source: Reuters via The Peninsula Qatar]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
kballs 7:22PM (11/22/2006)
Put this in the WTF column. 100,000 is a significant number of electric bikes in one city, that's probably more electric bikes than are found in the entire United States... IOW they are marginalizing a huge percentage of people when compared to car owners (not that it's surprising coming from China).
1. Why would you "not want electric bikes to become the main mode of transportation"?! It is probably the lowest impact mode to environment and traffic congestion. (If anything they should be taking measures to prevent cars from becoming the main mode of transportation, since cars are just getting started there - otherwise they will feed the sprawl that has made the US so dependent on cars.)
2. Why would you prefer pedal-powered bikes to compete in traffic against cars, since they are equal or slower to electric bikes unless ridden by super athletes? Or are regular bikes restricted to the sidewalks?
3. Fees/taxes: since bikes have such a low impact why should there be fees?
4. Training: plenty of idiots on regular bikes, why is it that much different with a electric bikes?
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Andy 11:58PM (11/22/2006)
Clearly, intelligence is not a factor Chinese thought.
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Hank 9:38AM (11/23/2006)
Clearly an issue of status over practicality.
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Tim 11:33AM (11/23/2006)
The simplest explanation is usually correct. Obviously bribes have been exchanged. Follow the money. Who has the most to gain from this policy?
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Schneegz 12:30PM (11/23/2006)
Legislators; you just gotta love 'em.
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