In China, New Vehicle Ban Results in Motorbike Graveyard

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April 10, 2016

Following China’s latest crackdown on illegally operated vehicles, scores of motorcycles are piling up under Nantou Toll Bridge expressway in the city of Shenzhen.

According to the Daily Mail, a strict ban on unauthorized vehicles has resulted in the pileup of over 18,000 motorbikes, electric bicycles and motorized tricycles under the Guangdong province expressway just 11 days after the new regulation went into effect.

While this is not the first time Chinese authorities have carried out such a crackdown on unlicensed vehicles, the most recent ban includes not only two-wheeled vehicles but also motorized tricycles, a mode of transportation which has become quite popular in the country.

Prior to this most recent mass confiscation, Yangdong District authorities destroyed 14,277 motorbikes in 2008, while a Hangzhou scrap yard did away with 100,000 more vehicles last March for failing to meet national emissions standards (Sidenote: China has national emissions standards?).

By 2020, as many as 16 million vehicles are expected to become scrap in China.