Road Safety Problems of E-Bicycles and Countermeasures in China

At present, the ownership of e-bicycles is very huge in China. The e-bicycles are widely distributed in both urban and rural areas and provide a relatively cheap means of transport for the convenience and fast travel of the masses. However, due to various reasons, the road traffic accidents involved with the e-bicycles are frequent and cause a series of problems. In some cities, the proportion of the accidents involved in the e-bicycles was even as high as 50%. The e-bicycles have gradually become one of the important factors affecting road traffic safety in China. And curbing the accidents involved in the e-bicycles has become one of the important tasks of accident prevention in many cities in China. But the effective means of the supervision to the e-bicycles is still lacking. The paper analyzes the change of the accidents caused by e-bicycles from 2004 to 2011 with time series analysis. The analysis shows that the growth rate of accidents is high, and the growth speed is quick even though the proportion of accidents is still small. And nearly 1/10 of the road traffic fatalities occur among e-bicyclists. The traffic safety of e-bicycles should get more attention. However, the analysis shows that although the accidents involved in the e-bicycles increase quickly, most of the accidents are caused by motor vehicle drivers, not e-bicyclists. Moreover, the fatality rate per 10,000 e-bicycles is much lower than that of motorcycles. The low safety driving quality, high safety risk of e-bicycles, and poor management are reasons for the safety problems of e-bicycles. Currently, effective management of e-bicycles, enforcement of illegal activities, popularization of third-party liability insurance for non-motor vehicles should be strengthened to deal with the safety problems of e-bicycles.