Police destroy over 14,000 ‘illegal’ motorcycles
From Danwei.org:
Today’s Daily Sunshine reported that 14,277 confiscated “illegal motorcycles” were destroyed by bulldozers in Yungang district, Shenzhen as part of the city’s “motorcycle ban”. The Shenzhen-based newspaper says that in April this year another 9.532 illegal motorcycles were wrecked in the same way.
Shenzhen began taking steps to reduce the numbers of motorcycles in the city as early as 1995. In 1998, the city stopped allowing residents to register new motorcycles and in 2003, the city passed regulations banning motorcycles from most parts of the downtown area. Today’s article says that since 2003 when the ban took effect, a total of over 580,000 motorcycles and electricity-powered bicycle have been confiscated. The Daily Sunshine article was unspecific about what constitutes an “illegal” motorcycles and how police go about confiscating them.
One rationale behind the ban is the rampant robberies in the city; robbers riding motorbikes routinely snatched handbags or jewelry from pedestrians and sped away often leaving arriving police in their dust. Some of these crimes occurred to happen in broad day light. The article cited a statistics saying that the motorbike robberies this year has declined by 58.32% compared with last year and three motorcycle robbery gangs have been busted by the police.
Most of China’s major cities have similar plans to cut down on motorcycles uses.
China Car Times understands that many motorcycles in the inner city areas are a nuisance, and are quite dangerous, but is there anyway that motorcyles and motorcars can live in harmony in the PRC? What do CCT readers think?
I gues the robbers need to use bicycles instead of motor cycles in the future. Or maybe worse, they need to use their legs to get away! Poor guys… (Hope the get shot when caught, hehehe)
I’m glad to see they are being destroyed in an environmentally friendly way! Bulldozers.
This is absolutey unfair!
Criminals use knives to commit crime and knives are not forbidden.
We have to defend the freedom to ride motorcycles for legal activities as going to work, to school, shopping, or just the fun of riding them.
To reduce crime, just fight criminals!!
The previous poster pretty much got it right……..it’s not the motorcycles that are dangerous, it’s the DRIVERS of the motorcycles!! Living in Nanning, I can personally attest to the absolutely INSANE driving habits of the motorcyclists here - profoundly dangerous and disrespectful of the pedestrians and cars around them. WHY is this so (at least in Nanning)? Simple - not enough traffic police to stop them and give them tickets/penalties. The same goes for cars here, to a lesser extent - most drivers are of the opinion that “there’s no police out here to stop me, so what the hell”. I’ve also traveled to most of the bigger cities here in China and I will admit that NOT having motorcycles on the city streets has contributed to a more “civilized” driving style overall. I’ve also seen traffic police in the bigger cities stop drivers and issue citations on a frequent basis - once enough drivers see this happening and talk to their friends, the word gets out quickly!! The THREAT of deterrence is ALWAYS effective, no matter what country you are in.
Ban the cars and keep the bikes!!
I have noticed that since the odd/even car days came into effect, the number of motorcycles on the road has increased. As a cyclist I notice this because typically motorcycles have poor emission control systems - i.e. even though I can’t see the motorcycle anymore, I can smell it all the way to my office.
One reason for getting motorcycles off the road is that even though their engines are much smaller than cars, their emmissions are quite a lot more noxious because motorcycles are poorly regulated. Some motorcycles create more greenhouse gasses and other pollutants per km than many cars nowadays!
Rob, you are totally right. I personally find those hybrid pedal/two stroke bikes are among the worst offenders.
How does Hong Kong manage to keep motorbikes and cars in harmony?
Payoffs, deaththreats
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