Viral Wheelchair Riders in China Highlight Fears Over E- ...

An unexpected alternative mode of transport is gaining attention this week in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, with videos circulating on social media of dozens of able-bodied youths cruising the streets on electric wheelchairs.

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It&#;s unclear to what extent people are actually starting to ride wheelchairs in the city, but the videos have soared in popularity as authorities in Guangzhou are mulling new restrictions on e-bikes and scooters, vehicles that have become ubiquitous over the last few decades on China&#;s urban streets due to their convenience and affordability. There were an estimated 300 million e-bikes in the country in , with tens of millions more expected to have sold since, especially after a surge in sales following the easing of pandemic controls last year.

The proliferation of e-bikes and scooters, once promoted by Beijing, however, has exacerbated concerns of overcrowding in public areas, road safety, and fire safety&#;prompting a series of crackdowns over the years by local governments across the country. Guangzhou authorities told reporters at a press briefing on Monday that they&#;ve received over 5,000 feedback letters from residents, most of which said there urgently needs to be stricter measures to curb the over 3.6 million e-bikes in the city. Over the past month, the Guangzhou government has been collecting public feedback on proposed e-bike regulations, such as restricting timings for riders to go on the road and banning e-bikes in selected districts.

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But certainly not everyone welcomes the crackdown. E-bike and scooter riders, of which there are evidently many, are pushing back. Some have described the viral videos of people using electric wheelchairs to get around as a tongue-in-cheek &#;protest&#; against the prospect of tightening regulations on their preferred vehicles.

Read More: Why a Blank Sheet of Paper Became a COVID Protest Symbol in China

&#;They&#;re not disabled, but were forced to become disabled&#; reads one comment on a video posted on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok. &#;This is also an extreme show of sarcasm to the administration,&#; reads another Douyin comment.

The discussions over e-bike regulations in Guangzhou coincide with another recent social media sensation: a widely shared screenshot of what appeared to be harsh scooter regulations&#;including banning people from riding scooters with just one hand and mandating riders to dismount and push their scooters across crosswalks, or zebra crossings. The list of regulations, purported to be taking effect nationwide, was later reported to be false, but not before it sparked a wave of public outcry online.

China&#;s crackdown on e-bikes and scooters may stand in stark contrast to its government-led fervor for electric cars and global efforts to transition to greener modes of transport. But it also reveals the increasing tensions felt globally as the growing number of electric two-wheelers struggle to coexist with more traditional road users and existing road layouts.

From New York to Berlin, authorities have been grappling with the huge task of adjusting city infrastructure to accommodate the increasing number of e-bike and scooter riders. In Europe, e-scooters have been blamed for increased road accidents, incurring the wrath of cyclists, drivers, and pedestrians&#;and, in April, Parisians voted to ban rental e-scooters altogether.

Other countries that have tried to take e-bikes off the road have also been met with backlash, especially among professional deliverers whose livelihoods depend on their vehicles. The impact that restricting e-bikes would have on such delivery drivers is one major concern among residents in Guangzhou, a traffic police representative said at the Monday press briefing, adding that authorities will do their best to reduce the impact on sellers and deliverers.

Read More: These Delivery Drivers Are Risking Their Health to Keep China Running During the Coronavirus Epidemic

Alfred Wu, an associate professor who researches Chinese governance at Singapore&#;s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, tells TIME that instead of viewing the electric wheelchair-sitting, loophole-finding youths in Guangzhou as mere jokers, the ongoing social media discourse instead reflects a common downside of China&#;s blanket approach to curbing undesirable behavior.

&#;It&#;s [a] problem of Chinese public policy making,&#; he says. &#;They always want [a] one-size-fits-all solution, but in reality, it&#;s more complicated.&#;

Users of electric bikes are the latest target of Beijing&#;s ongoing campaign to bring order to its chaotic, traffic-clogged streets.

Since April, Beijing&#;s city government said electric bikes, also known as e-bikes, would be banned from 10 major city centre roads, including Chang&#;an Avenue, a main thoroughfare, and its side streets.

Users of e-bikes, which are ubiquitous in many Chinese cities, have been penalised for ignoring traffic rules and threatening public safety by mounting kerbs and colliding with pedestrians.

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Beijing currently has four million e-bikes, according to media reports.

Transportation authority statistics show 31,404 accidents last year involved e-bikes, with 113 people killed and 21,423 injured, accounting for 37% of all traffic accident injuries.

But critics of the e-bike ban say the government is overreacting, and that better urban planning, such as dedicated lanes for e-bikes, would reduce the number of collisions with pedestrians.

More crucially, experts say a  ban on e-bikes would likely boost the sales of cars, which contribute to dangerously high levels of particulate pollution in the capital.

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According to research released last year, pollution from vehicles accounts for a third of Beijing&#;s smog, prompting the city&#;s government to impose tougher curbs on car use, including plans for a congestion charge.

&#;If we do away with them (e-bikes) people will have no option but to buy cars, which are larger and polluting, Chou Baoxing, a State Council advisor and former minister for housing and urban-rural development, said in an interview with Caijing magazine.

The car manufacturers would likely benefit, and traffic police will deal with fewer offences, but the city&#;s environment will suffer, with poorer air quality and increased congestion, Chou added.

He pointed out that e-bikes, which are low carbon and suitable for an ageing population, have a valuable role in China&#;s sprawling, congested and fast growing cities.

Liu Daizong, head of the World Resources Institute&#;s China Sustainable Transport project, said that if the ban isn&#;t accompanied by preferential measures for alternative modes of transport, such as (non-motorised) bicycle and bus lanes, then electric bicycle owners will likely buy cars instead.

He Zuoxiu, a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, told chinadialogue that the ban is a test to see how the public reacts. &#;If there isn&#;t much opposition, it&#;s very likely the ban will be extended to other roads, and other cities in China,&#; he said.

For instance, in Shezhen 18,000 electric bicycles were confiscated in March this year, with 874 people arrested. Confiscated bicycles were piled up below overpasses, in &#;bicycle graveyards.&#;

Bike nation

China was once a land of bicycles. In , almost every household owned two bicycles; across the country, there were only 2 million private cars (according to the Chinese Statistical Yearbook). By the number had shot up to 100 million cars; a 50-fold increase. Today, Beijing alone has 5.61 million vehicles.

And as the traditional-type bicycle fell from favour, e-bikes became more popular. Figures from industry website evtimes.cn show there are 200 million electric bicycle users in China; that&#;s one in seven people.

Standards

Being more affordable, e-bikes sell better than cars in China and the fastest models sell best.

The most recent e-bike standards were last issued in . These require that e-bikes weigh no more than 40 kilogrammes; go no faster than 20 kilometres per hour; and have foot pedals built-in.

Under current regulations, road authorities can stop and penalise bikes in breach of these standards, with drivers subject to fines (though in reality most go unpunished). However, the public wants to see these outdated standards revamped.

At this year&#;s &#;twin sessions&#; political conference in Bejing, National Representative Zhang Tianren said 95% of electric bicycles failed to meet the standards. If true, this means that over 100 million e-bikes on the roads aren&#;t actually legal.

Restrictions on e-bikes aren&#;t just a matter for commuters &#; many other sectors are affected, including courier businesses and food deliveries.

Zhang, an e-bike rider at courier company Shentong Express, told chinadialogue that if his speed was limited to 20 kilometres per hour (in keeping with the standards), he wouldn&#;t be able to make so many collections and deliveries, damaging his income.

Going national

This isn&#;t Beijing&#;s first such clampdown. He Zuoxiu told chinadialogue that over 10 years ago, the car industry lobbied the city government to discourage e-bikes &#; but widespread opposition meant their efforts were unsuccessful.

Since then, complaints have grown about e-bike users ignoring traffic rules.

With the regulations unclear, these small and manoeuvrable vehicles often switch between bicycle and vehicle lanes and the pavement, slowing down faster-moving cars and intimidating pedestrians and those on traditional bikes.

Divisions of roads into vehicle lanes, bicycle lanes and pavements, which were made decades ago, have failed to keep up with the increasingly diverse modes of transport in Beijing.

&#;Electric bicycles themselves aren&#;t evil,&#; said Liu Daizong, who added that accidents involving cars cause much more harm than other forms of transport.

Offering potential solutions to the problem, Liu said electric bicycles should be categorised according to maximum speed, with driving licences needed to ride faster categories; better allocation of priority on the roads; and strict enforcement of traffic rules.

That way, safety could be improved and the environmental benefits of e-bikes retained in cities that have increasingly tough targets on cutting pollution and carbon.

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