Shenzhen bans 13,000 traffic violators from using shared-bikes

About 13,000 people in Shenzhen who committed traffic breaches in the first nine days of this month have been banned from using shared bikes for one week as the combined efforts of traffic regulators and bike sharing firms such as Mobike and Ofo begin to take effect.

Between July 1 and 9, a total of 13,615 non-motorised vehicles were found to have breached the traffic laws in Shenzhen. Personal information on these traffic violators has been reported to the respective bike-sharing companies, which have been ordered to suspend their usages of bike-sharing apps between July 17 and 23, the city’s traffic police announced on its official Sina Weibo account on Thursday.

It is the first crackdown since the joint statement between Shenzhen traffic police and bike sharing companies took effect on July 1, which stipulated that riders of non-motorised vehicles who have breached traffic regulations while riding will be prohibited from using shared bikes for a certain period of time. A one week ban will apply for one violation, a one month ban for two violations and a six month ban for three or more violations.

The Shenzhen traffic police department said it will randomly check whether respective bike-sharing companies have fully applied the bans on these traffic violators. It will also consider including any non-motorised traffic breaches in the bike rider’s driving record.

As the rapid spread of bike sharing has created a multitude of social issues and grievances across China, the Ministry of Transport responded in May with an order requiring customers who use smartphone apps to rent bicycles to register with their true identities, as well as a rule forbidding riders under the age of 12 from using the services.

Different Chinese cities are initiating their own local laws to manage the usage of shared bikes.

As of April, as many as 520,000 shared bikes were reportedly in service in Shenzhen.

On Thursday the city’s traffic police revealed that of the 13,615 non-motorised traffic violations recorded in the first nine days since the new rules took effect, 3,261 involved illegal riding of bicycles.

Of these, 1,717 or 53 per cent were on rented bicycles from various bike-sharing companies.

In Shenzhen, non-motorised vehicles usually refer to bicycles and tricycles.

Of the people who breached the law while riding shared-bikes, 905 were renting from Mobike while 666 were using Ofo – the two leading bike-sharing brands in China. Both companies have accounted for over 90 per cent of the cases involving traffic law violations in Shenzhen.

The Shenzhen Internet Information Office further elaborated on its Weibo account that 45 per cent of the shared-bike riders who violated traffic rules were riding on motorway lanes, while 34 per cent were illegally occupying lanes designated for other vehicles.

Female riders accounted for 29 per cent of total traffic violation cases, while males contributed the remaining 71 per cent. More than half of the 1,717 violators are aged between 20 and 30.