Guangzhou plans to regulate the total number of electric bicycles

Guangzhou will take necessary steps to manage the total number of electric bicycles in a timely manner to ease traffic jams and reduce accidents caused by electric bicycles, said officials at the city's news conference on Thursday.

The conference introduced the Regulations on the Management of Electric Bicycles in Guangzhou, which was passed on the 13th Meeting of the Standing Committee of the 14th People's Congress of Guangdong Province and will be implemented on Dec 30.

"Relevant departments will also formulate supporting policy documents for the regulation in the following months," authorities said.

The Guangdong provincial capital has witnessed a surge in the number of electric bicycles in use since it introduced registration and licensing management for electric bicycles in November 2021.

According to official statistics, the registered number of electric bicycles in Guangzhou had reached more than 5.4 million as the end of September, an increase of 1.4 million or 35 percent when compared to the same period last year.

And now the number of electric bicycles in Guangzhou is still growing, with about 4,000 getting registered per day and about 100,000 getting registered per month.

Guangzhou's road traffic capacity and resources such as vehicle parking and charging facilities are limited. The problem has become even more prominent in the central urban areas, authorities said.

The city government will fully consider the city's total number of electric bicycles, road facility resources, and their usages in different regions and time periods. Rigorous monitoring and careful research will be conducted to take control on the total number of electric bicycles, authorities said.

Since 2023, 1,500 traffic accidents were caused by electric bicycles in the city, causing hundreds of injuries and dozens of deaths.

Authorities said 60 to 80 percent of trauma orthopedic patients in major hospitals are caused by electric bicycles-related accidents. Traffic police have investigated and dealt with more than one million cases of electric bicycle traffic violations annually since 2022.

And the high frequency of traffic rule violations by electric bicycles, such as running red lights, driving the wrong direction, and not following the lane, have seriously disrupted the city's traffic order.

Moreover, illegal parking and charging practices of electric bicycles have caused fire from time to time, authorities said.

From June to August, Guangzhou reported a total of 265 electric bicycle fires.