Beijing E-Bikes Will Require a License to Drive

原创 Charles L. theBeijinger

For the first time ever, you will need a license to drive an electric bicycle in Beijing as the city implements harsh new regulations on the city's cheapest and quickest mode of single-person transportation.

In the wake of last month's new electric bicycle law, the National People's Congress of Beijing will double down on national standards by introducing a local licensing system of their own. Under the new Beijing law, all electric bicycle riders must obtain a driver's license while e-bikes must be registered and be given its own license plate.

If that wasn't enough, the new regulations will crackdown on just about every aspect of the ubiquitous people mover.

The city will create a comprehensive list of electric bikes that will ban those that don't comply with national standards from sale or registration. And while e-bike users will be punished for improper parking with fines between 20 and 50 yuan, share-bike companies that provide e-bikes caught with traffic violations also face fines ranging between 5,000 and 30,000 yuan.

READ: Beijing to Ban Electric Bikes on 10 Major Streets, Including Chang'an Jie

What's more, the new Beijing laws will also forbid battery charging in stairwells and hallways of residential areas, dovetailing with a previous announcement regarding specialized e-bike charging zones.

Considering the chaotic mess that are Beijing's roads, the new rules have largely been well-received by the Chinese public. And yet, the proposed law will also take away the biggest advantage of the e-bike, rendering it next to redundant.

Beijing lawmakers say they want to limit maximum speeds of local e-bikes to just 15 kilometers per hour (9.3 miles per hour), confining them to non-motorized lanes only. By contrast, this is almost twice as slow as last month's national proposal to limit e-bike speeds to 25 kilometers per hour across the country.

It could be that Beijing's overly-congested roads – some of the worst in the country – have taught us to give thanks to any commuter pathway that isn't tied up in gridlock. As much as we don't want to be appreciative, it remains that 15 kilometers per hour is not very fast at all.

READ: Bike to Work: Beijing's Bicycle-Only Highway to Begin Construction in September

For starters, Beijing's proposed maximum top speed for electric bicycles is set next to the average commuting speed of bicycles at 16 kilometers per hour. And yet, the new rules will see Beijing be stricter on electric bicycles than their manual counterparts; the city's future "bicycle highway" will allow bicycle-only riders to reach maximum speeds of 20 kilometers per hour.

Even though they have been banned from Beijing roads, other forms of wheeled transportation travel at faster speeds than the future e-bike regulation. A novice roller skater can travel at an average speed of 8-16 kilometers per hour, while skateboarders can travel at average speeds of 16-32 kilometers per hour. Meanwhile, Segways are known to reach cruising speeds of 20 kilometers per hour.

Maybe a clearer example would be to offer a comparison to our animal friends.

The maximum speed of a Beijing e-bike will be set much slower than the average running speed of a horse (40-48 kilometers per hour) or even a dog (26-50 kilometers per hour). In fact, the only comparable animals we could find to match Beijing's new regulations are a black mamba snake (15-20 kilometers per hour) or a chicken (14.5 kilometers per hour).

Theoretically, you could run to work faster than an e-bike if you could maintain the average human running speed of 24 kilometers per hour while jogging remains a viable alternative with average speeds of 8-10 kilometers per hour.

As worrisome as this news for some Beijing commuters is, you won't have to worry about tonight's commute home. It will be three years before non-compliant e-bikes are phased out.

As seen from internet comments, the Chinese public is largely supportive of the new measures, and it's true that Beijing's chaotic roads could use some order. And yet, the next time we order chicken for take-out delivery, it could be faster for it to run over by itself.

Images: shutterstock.com