That said, the ban, which has been phased in over the past two years, besides affecting the livelihoods of the hundreds of thousands of people who use motorbikes for personal use, won’t do much to reduce crime or pollution overall. A lot of people will upgrade to cars or vans (how’s that emissions index?), a lot of people will find it impossible to find new work, and the very very few who do use motorbikes to snatch purses will most likely just go to Dongguan.

City officials blame exhaust-spewing motorcycles for increased pollution and other problems. Motorcycles were involved in about half the city’s accidents last year, when crashes left 311 people dead, according to the public security office, and snatch-and-run gangs of thieves menace pedestrians. Through the first nine months of this year, police tallied 3,432 cases of robbers using motorcycles.

Sorry, I should have included that quote – as it cites how many accidents they’re involved in. Now, if Guangzhou is anything like Suzhou, there are more bikes than cars on the roads – and if they’re involved in 50% of the accidents, but there’s more of them than cars, and it doesn’t say if cars were also involved in those accidents… I don’t know – kind of a washy figure.

Regardless, I do see your point, and I wasn’t aware that the ban was public knowledge for the previous two years. However, how come the promotion of moderation is not a better solution? I think the point of the article, and the point of this post, was that these sweeping edicts are not very well thought out, as they don’t make room for the complexity that is society.

It has been known that this ban would come for more than 2 years, so it’s not like it is a surprise to all those people making a living out of it.

I think that this ban, although it has some negative sides, still is a good solution.