More than a ban needed to make electric bikes meet requirements

THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT OF SHENZHEN, South China's Guangdong province, has banned electric bicycles and tricycles that do not meet the national standards from April 1. But going by the national standards formulated 17 years ago that limit the speed of electric bikes and tricycles to 20 kilometers an hour, 90 percent of such bikes and tricycles today would be disqualified as their top speed varies between 50 and 70 km an hour. The Beijing News commented on Saturday:

It is necessary to strengthen regulation of electric bikes and tricycles because their brakes are not powerful enough to match their speed. As a result, these dangerous yet convenient modes of transport are responsible for a considerable number of accidents.

In just 10 days, the public security department of Shenzhen put more than 800 people under administrative detention for refusing to hand over their "substandard" electric bikes or tricycles, and many of those were low-income commuters or couriers. Some local authorities even issued a notice awarding the law enforcers 500 yuan ($77) for every person they detained.