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GUANGZHOU - The classic images of Chinese traffic are armies of bicycles jostling for space or thousands of cars filling the sky with smog, but for millions of commuters in the big cities, the electric bike is the only way to travel.
They're cheap, costing between £200 ($568) and £600, use no expensive petrol and are much less polluting than cars, making them the preferred mode of transport of choice for 15 million Chinese.
The sight of electric bicycles beating the traffic by whizzing between the cars is an increasingly common and often hair-raising sight.
Delivery men and office workers swear by them, while they are also popular with retirees lacking pedal power for getting around town.
Now a new ban on battery-powered bicycles in the southern boomtown of Guangzhou has left more than 100,000 owners stranded, furious that their cheap and cheerful mode of transport has been outlawed.
Guangzhou is the capital of Guangdong province, home to 10 million people and 870,000 cars, growing by 150,000 a year, which translates into filthy air and traffic gridlock.
Traffic police officers complain that electric bikes and their riders are not trained. The bikes do not need a licence and are exempt from registration fees, which police say makes them unable to enforce traffic regulations, leading to last week's ban.
"These riders have never received any special riding training or tests, so their driving skills are very difficult to guarantee," a police spokesperson said.
More than 100 electric bike makers held a rally in Guangzhou to protest against the ban, demanding that the Government introduce rules and not simply kill off the bikes.
Bike owners are also unhappy at not being given compensation. Police said they had been warned through the media about a ban.
Local governments are torn about what to do.
About one-third of Chinese cities, including Zhuhai, Dongguan, Fuzhou and Wuhan, have banned the electric bikes. Those caught riding them can be fined £3.50 and have their bikes confiscated.
China's biggest city Shanghai, on the other hand, encourages electric bicycles and has 1.3 million of them - 500,000 added last year.
And in January, the capital Beijing lifted a three-year ban on electric bicycles once the vehicles are registered with the city's traffic administration. City authorities had complained that the bikes' used batteries are hard to dispose of and may pollute the environment.
Owning a car is a dream for most Chinese people and the Government is keen to make this dream a reality, making the car lobby an extremely powerful one. There are 30 million cars in China and the number is growing, and car exhaust fumes account for 70 per cent of all carbon dioxide emissions.
- INDEPENDENT
