Anyone who’s driven around Shenzhen (or… practically any city in China) can attest to the traffic gridlock. That’s to say nothing of the thick haze of gray dust that often hangs over the city, which sticks to your clothes in this hot and humid weather. One would think to rid ourselves of both problems, riding bicycles — or for longer distances, electric bicycles — would help. For many people, it has; the problem is, according to Shenzhen, these bikes are also resulting in too many traffic accidents. So the city has taken it upon itself to ban the bikes, effective this week. Details from NDTV:

The ban will be effective till December 5 when the city authorities will review it to see if further ban is needed, it said.

Electric bike riders will be persuaded off roads this month and face fines of 200 yuan starting next month, Xinhua reported.

The ban was justified by officials stating that electric bikes were blamed for 64 deaths in 268 roads accidents last year.

The city has over 500,000 electric bikes and the ban is believed to greatly increase the operational costs of express delivery companies.

All over China, including capital Beijing, noiseless electric bikes are becoming immensely popular as more and more people opted for them to beat the traffic jams and reduce transport costs.

The sad part here is that electric bikes, whatever their failings, did help resolve both traffic congestion and pollution. One would think finding a way to accommodate them, rather than ban them entirely, might be a more suitable solution. We’ll see if this ban is permanent (money is on ‘yes’) come December.