In a bid to make its streets walkable again, the southern China boomtown of Shenzhen has finally decided to take action against a public safety scourge known in some quarters as “the silent killer.â€
Though China’s balmy southern region is notorious as a breeding ground for nasty viruses, the deadly force in question is not a disease. Nor it is migrant worker unrest, which — fatal though it can be to the careers of Communist Party officials — is hardly quiet.
No, the inaudible target of Shenzhen’s latest law-enforcement effort is something altogether more insidious. From Monday’s China Daily:
Shenzhen, in Guangdong province, is often acclaimed for its pioneering spirit. As China’s first special economic zone, it was transformed from a small fishing village into a major national economic hub.
Now it is making another pioneering move – banning electric bicycles, often referred to as e-bikes, from most of its streets. No small task considering the city has 500,000 e-bike owners.
The ban is for a six-month trial basis, and it could be extended.
A notice released by the Shenzhen municipal commission of transport and the public security bureau cited safety concerns as the reason for the ban.
Last year, according to Shenzhen traffic police bureau, 64 people were killed and 233 were injured in 268 accidents caused by e-bikes. The bikes accounted for 15.7 percent of all road accidents in the city in 2010.
“The bicycles are capable of high speeds and there is no registration requirement,†Sun Wei, a traffic management assistant in Luohu district, said.
Electric bikes were once touted as a solution to China’s transportation woes. Embraced by commuters as a cheap, convenient alternative to the car, the battery-powered scooters were also lauded by environmentalists for being emission-free and welcomed by traffic management bureaus for taking up relatively little space on the country’s increasingly sclerotic urban roadways.
But as e-bikes have grown in popularity – China is home to as many as 120 million, by some estimates — the shine has started to wear off.
First, it turns out that e-bikes aren’t quite as green as they might seem. In large part, this is because vast majority of e-bikes are powered by lead-acid batteries, the production of which has contributed to an epidemic of lead-poisoning cases in recent years, including in March.
And even e-bikes equipped with much lighter and cleaner lithium-ion batteries still ultimately get their power from the grid, which in China feeds overwhelmingly on electricity from smoke-spewing coal-fired plants.
Of more immediate concern, however, is the threat to public safety posed by pelotons of scooters tearing through crowded Chinese cities on motors that, while essentially noiseless, are capable of speeds up to 40 kilometers per hour. As The Wall Street Journal reported last year, traffic deaths attributed to e-bikes hit nearly 2,500 nationwide in 2007, up from 34 in 2001.
Chinese traffic authorities have tried to mitigate the danger by mandating that e-bikes weigh 40 kilograms or less and be limited to a maximum speed of 20 kilometers per hour. But heavier, faster bikes are widely available.
“Except old people, no one worries about high speed,†Beijing-based e-bike seller Chen Han tells China Daily, revealing that his shop’s most popular model weighs in at 50 kilograms and has a top speed nearly twice the legal limit. “Only an idiot will spend a lot of money on an electric bicycle that drives like an ordinary bicycle.â€
With manufacturers and retailers unwilling to play by the rules, Shenzhen authorities may feel like an outright ban is the only option left. But it seems highly unlikely Chinese e-bike riders – a population that includes everyone from students to white collar workers to the country’s stunningly efficient tribe of express delivery bike messengers – will accept a ban quietly.
According to China Daily, other cities are keeping an eye on the current ban in Shenzhen – which is being rolled out in stages but will eventually include fines of 200 yuan per violation — to see whether it is feasible to roll out bans of their own.
For his part, one resident of Beijing quoted by China Daily doesn’t seem overly concerned. “Countless people drive electric bicycles,†the newspaper quotes the resident, Zhang Lijuan, as saying. “How could traffic police have the energy to punish every of them in such a big city?â€
– Josh Chin. Follow him on Twitter @joshchin
