Police have vowed "zero tolerance" against motorcyclists within the special economic zone (SEZ) this year to make the SEZ motorbike-free.

"Xili area in Nanshan District to the north of North Ring Road is now the only section that motorcycles can travel within the SEZ," said Tang Yan, vice director of motorcycle-banning office under the Shenzhen Municipal Public Security Bureau.

Tang explained the reason the SEZ is not totally motor-free is that legal motorcycle owners should be entitled to use their motorcycles within the SEZ according to the Administration Permission Law of the People's Republic of China. "We will totally ban motorcycle traveling within the SEZ after the compensation plan for retrieved motorcycles is implemented," she said.

Tang said an estimated 10,000 Shenzhen-registered motorcycles bought after 1993 will be covered by the compensation plan.

"We will consider the purchase price of the motorcycles and how long they have been used to decide the compensation," Tang said. But the timetable for the compensation plan is still unknown.

Motorcycle-free areas outside the SEZ will also be further expanded. The police said they would take turns to ban motors after adequate public transportation has been introduced.

Motorcycles are blamed for disturbing normal traffic and facilitating motorcyclist robberies in Shenzhen. Motorcycles registered in other cities have been forbidden from the city since 1995, and those registered in Shenzhen have only been allowed to use certain roads since 2003. Electrically operated bikes are also banned in Shenzhen.

The police launched a three-month clampdown from September to December in 2006. Almost 130,000 illegal motors were seized in the campaign and 30,876 worn-out motors were destroyed.

The police reported a decrease in traffic accidents involving motorbikes and a 30 percent fall in the number of people injured compared with the same period last year.

However, 61 people were still killed in traffic accidents involving motorbikes in Shenzhen, said Ye Guanxiong, vice director of the Shenzhen Municipal Public Security Bureau Headquarters.