Non-motorized vehicles prohibited on Chang’an Avenue and ten streets in Beijing

From April 11th 2016, non-motorized vehicles or electric motorcycles will be prohibited on Chang’an Avenue and 10 major streets of the Capital city. The news appeared today in China Daily as well as other sources.

The Municipal Bureau of Traffic Management, in order to further strengthen the city’s management of non-motorized traffic, in accordance with relevant provisions of the “People’s Republic of China on Road Traffic Safety Law”, has recently issued a circular: from April 11th, Chang’an Avenue and its extension lines, will be prohibited for non-motorized vehicles.

From Monday April 11th 2016, if you happen to ride your e-bike or your e-scooter or your e-tricycle on one of the prohibited streets, you encounter a fine of 20 RMB. The rule doesn’t apply to human-powered two-wheeled bicycles. If you refuse to pay the fine, your vehicle will be confiscated.

Beijing is not the only city in China to take restrictive to prohibitive measures against electric motorcycles. A few days ago, Shenzhen announced the ban of all unregistered and illegal vehicles. Those decisions may harm the delivery sector and e-commerce, as most parcels are delivered to their final destination by electric motorcycles / tricycles.

Why banning electric motorcycles?

There are few reasons:

Electric motorcycles don’t do noise and they are faster than the pedal bikes which makes them more vulnerable to traffic accidents.
Not all (not to say “only a few”) electric motorcycles drivers follow the traffic rules (traffic lights, traffic directions…), which affects the safety of pedestrian and the image of the capital city.
There are about 4 million electric motorcycles in Beijing and most of them are not registered as required by the regulation.
Besides not complying to the regulation by their design and quality, many electric motorcycles ride over the speed limit because they have unlocked the engine.
According to the traffic control department statistics, in 2015, there were 31404 accidents involving electric motorcycles in Beijing, 113 fatalities, and 21,423 injured people, which represents 36.7 percent of all road accident injuries.
Most electric motorcycles drivers can’t purchase insurances and therefore in case of accident, the involved parties can get hardly any compensation.

Restricted roads

Except for Puhuangyu Road (near the Puhuangyu subway station on Line 5), all the prohibited roads are along Chang’an Avenue, which runs east and west past Tian’anmen Square: