+100 for the first Monty Python reference I've seen on ABG.

↓↑report

Posting ignorant crap like this just shows how little about China you know. It reduces robberies because muggers in China don't just walk up to you in a dark alley, they ride their motorcycles up onto sidewalks, or just next to sidewalks and grab people's purses. And you know what happens to a lot of those women? They get dragged after the motorcycle on the asphalt until their purse straps break.
Seeing as how this actually happened TWICE to someone in my family (the first time her purse strap broke immediately, the second time she wasn't as lucky and ended up needed surgery to put her face back together), I can assure you that they didn't just ban motorcycles for fun. The only reason these bans even occured is because the problem has become so insanely rampant that it comes down to either banning motorcycles or having regular citizens be in total fear of lunatics dragging them down the street.
Anyways I don't even know why Autoblog is posting this story now, it happened so very long ago (fairly obvious since there are already statistics on the crime drop). And the byline on the actual main Autoblog site makes it sound like it's thieves stealing motorcycles. *sigh*

↓↑report

The point isn't to stop thieves entirely, but to stop people from being dragged after motorcycles because these thieves do ride-by muggings of people's purses and bookbags. Also, it's a lot harder for cops to chase after motorcycles than it is for cops to chase after criminals on foot, or even in cars (since traffic is so bad in most Chinese cities trying to get away in a car just doesn't work).
Until you've actually been on the ground in China and assessed the crime problems there I suggest not just spouting off opinions based on a fantasy of evil totalitarian rulers out to destroy the lives of motorcycle riders. Why in the world would any government randomly ban motorcycles when so many own them?!? The only reason they've banned them is because their citizens got tired of living in constant fear of being dragged off by criminals on motorcycles (who have even been known to cut people's hands off to get people to get go of their bags) and pretty much demanded that the cops do something. And the cops were so frustrated by not being able to catch any of these criminals (try chasing after a criminal who just mugged someone at 30mph...on a motorcycle, in a city with insanely congested traffic) that they eventually had to resort to this.
You can bash China for a lot of stuff, but in this case the ban is what people wanted. It's not optimal, but people were reimbursed for their motorcycles and most Chinese cities have excellent public transportation and horrible pollution problems, so while it's not big on freedoms it's managed to improve safety, pollution, and also traffic problems (go to any Chinese city that still has motorcycles and you'll see idiots riding on the sidewalk, riding between cars and the sidewalk [especially fun when you try to get out of a taxi and some moron has decided to ride by in the 2 feet between you and a fence]).
I can pretty much guarantee you that if your city had a problem with lunatic muggers on motorcycles like most Chinese cities have, you'd probably want motorcycles off the streets as well.

↓↑report

Dude...have you seen the traffic in China? There's 1.4 billion people there...cars are horrible getaway vehicles.
And most of these robberies occur while the thieves are still on the motorcycles, they don't get off-they just ride the motorcycles up next to you (including onto sidewalks), grab your purse/jacket/whatever and hit the gas. And if you're dragged after them they either just wait until your bag straps break, or they cut your hands/fingers off.
Come on man, don't just apply your American concept of what muggings are like to other countries. There's a reason why South Africans put flame throwers on their cars, and a reason why China has to ban motorcycles, and in both cases it's because crime there is quite different than crime where you are.
I will admit that I personally had no clue why they would crush these bikes until I actually went to China and met a family member who had been mugged twice, and got dragged after the motorcycle face down on the asphalt the second time (which, btw, required a good deal of surgery and is probably traumatic beyond belief). So unless you're cool with your friends and family being dragged after motorcycles all the time, my guess is that if you lived in one of these Chinese cities you'd probably be FOR the ban, like most Chinese people actually are. Which, incidentally, is why you haven't heard of riots in the streets in Shenzhen about motorcycles being destroyed. If most people actually wanted to keep the motorcycles they wouldn't have been taken away, but most people there WANTED THE MOTORCYCLES GONE.

↓↑report