Electric bikes banned in Chinese city to make room for cars

[MetroMPG]

Wow.

Electric bikes banned in Chinese city to make room for cars

A ban on battery-powered bicycles in the southern China city of Guangzhou has left tens of thousands of owners grounded without compensation and angered vendors who face lost business, local media reported yesterday.

The ban, effective a day after police announced it last week but allowing a "15-day education period", was aimed at preventing electric-powered bikes from becoming "the main mode of transport", Xinhua reported.

"If such bikes are permitted, this will certainly rapidly increase the burden on roads," Xinhua quoted police as saying.

...

Qiu lamented that some Chinese cities were cutting back on bicycle lanes in order to make more room for cars, even as some Western cities were building more lanes for cyclists.

Source: The Peninsula - Qatar's leading English daily
http://tinyurl.com/y2bjrc

via Green Car Congress
http://tinyurl.com/yxkk6p

[Silveredwings]

I think this (banning mopeds) was tried in a few other places and abandoned when the populace grewe weary of disaster. I think Nantucket got overwhelmed with rental cars during tourest season. I think Bermuda did something like that but I'm not sure.

[MetroMPG]

What do you do, though, when you're part of a populace that has no legal right to "grow weary" of your decision-makers?

It appears that the most significant push towards main-stream development & use of EVs (not just e-bikes) is coming from China. Because of that, stories like this one catch my attention.

[The Toecutter]

I'm not at all surprised. China wants to maximize economic growth, and there's no better way to induce spending that by trying to force people into cars that are currently running on high maintenance internal combustion engines. The benefits of China's industrialization are often over-hyped. There have been multiple instances of villages revolting against companies who have polluted their land, only to have the Chinese military gun them down. Chima wants to grow its consumer class so that more revenue can be generated for its industry and government. America made the same mistake when its government(s) and industry decided that the Jeffersonian ideal that could have been wasn't profitable enough, and deided that such a thing can not be allowed to form over the period of 1830 to present day.

[nonnef]

Originally Posted by The Toecutter

I'm not at all surprised. China wants to maximize economic growth, and there's no better way to induce spending that by trying to force people into cars that are currently running on high maintenance internal combustion engines. The benefits of China's industrialization are often over-hyped. There have been multiple instances of villages revolting against companies who have polluted their land, only to have the Chinese military gun them down. Chima wants to grow its consumer class so that more revenue can be generated for its industry and government. America made the same mistake when its government(s) and industry decided that the Jeffersonian ideal that could have been wasn't profitable enough, and deided that such a thing can not be allowed to form over the period of 1830 to present day.

Agreed.
China just wants people to spend more money.

What rubbish.