Hong Bo, a deputy to the second session of the 13th National People's Congress. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

The government should ramp up investment and introduce high-tech tools to strengthen regulations on e-bikes so as to improve road traffic order in urban areas in China, said Hong Bo.

Hong, a deputy to the second session of the 13th National People's Congress, made the remarks in his proposal to the national legislative body.

He pointed out that e-bikes have become an important transport vehicle for urban residents as well as couriers owing to eco-friendliness and convenience. However, the lack of regulations affecting them has also spawned a raft of problems including traffic accidents and disturbed road traffic order, Hong said.

Official data show that China is the world's largest manufacturer and consumer of e-bikes. In 2017, the country already had 250 million e-bikes, with manufacturing capacity of over 30 million annually. From 2013 to 2017, more than 56,200 e-bike accidents were recorded nationwide, leaving 8,431 people dead and 63,500 injured over the period.

According to Hong, the transport authorities' lack of any regulations on the e-bikers is a great threat to public security and creates a problem of urban governance.

To tackle the problem, Hong proposed the formulation of national regulations covering e-bike registration, cancellation and service life, calling on governments to adopt high-tech tools to strengthen regulations on e-bikes and institute a credit system that aims to root out misconduct among e-bikers.

Meanwhile, he also suggested that the authorities should ramp up investment in public transport which will reduce the public usage of e-bikes.