Chinese riders go green with electric bikes, but also live dangerously

Electric bicycles are China's answer to the Prius because they're green, they're zippy and they're cheap. They are also emerging as a safety hazard in a country where road accidents are the biggest killer of young people.

As Chinese cities impose car quotas to fend off record pollution, more residents are turning to rechargeable electric cycles. That is putting a spotlight on e-bikes that snake through traffic as fast as 40km/h, occasionally mowing down pedestrians or taking a hit themselves.

By some estimates, 200 million Chinese now use e-bikes, a 1,000-fold increase from 15 years ago. About 90 per cent of the world's e-bikes were sold in China in 2012, according to Navigant Research, a consulting firm, which estimates that another 249 million will be sold there by 2020. Traffic police treat them like bicycles and riders zip alongside cars and trucks - without ever passing road tests.

"This style of transportation is arguably a solution to the world's mobility problems and China is the testing ground," said Brent Powis, a Beijing-based road safety consultant for the World Health Organisation.

"Now we have to look at how to prevent this public health opportunity from becoming a public health risk."

Research suggests that e-bikes are "involved in crashes at a very high level", possibly because of their speed, Powis said.