电动自行车成为马路杀手

　　Pedestrians complain that e-bike riders pay little heed to the rules of the road. Drivers of electric bikes are 'totally devoid of conscience and respect for the law,' complained Wang Mingyue, a blogger on the popular Beijing News Web site.

　　路上的行人抱怨骑电动自行车的人无视交通法规。《新京报》博主王明月撰文谴责道，电动自行车驾驶员完全是“无法无天”。

　　China's e-bike industry started under the planned economy of the Maoist 1960s. Primitive battery and engine technology doomed early efforts. After China liberalized its economy in the 1980s, a handful of entrepreneurs tried to revive e-bikes just as city planners were casting a worried eye on the explosive growth of exhaust-spewing mopeds and scooters. By the 1990s, cities were starting to ban motor scooters, creating an opening for electric bicycles. Electric bikes had government backing: inclusion as one of 10 key scientific-development priority projects in the Ninth Five-Year Plan. They had the personal endorsement of former Premier Li Peng, according to an academic paper on the history of e-bikes in China by Jonathan Weinert, Ma Chaktan and Chris Cherry.

　　中国的电动自行车产业可以追溯至上世纪60年代的计划经济时代。粗糙的电池和引擎技术导致了最初的努力以失败收场。在上世纪80年代中国经济开放之后，一些企业家努力让电动自行车产业实现复苏，正值城市规划者对高污染的机动脚踏车和轻便摩托车的爆炸性增长感到了担忧。到了上世纪90年代，中国城市开始限制摩托车，为电动自行车的登场创造了条件。这一行业的发展曾经得到政府扶持：在中国的“九五”计划期间，电动自行车曾经在十大优先发展的关键科学项目中占有一席之地。由威纳特(Jonathan Weinert)、马泽丹(Ma Chaktan)和查瑞(Chris Cherry)联合撰写的、讲述中国电动自行车发展历史的论文透露，中国前总理李鹏还对该行业的发展表示了个人的支持。

　　By 1998, regulators realized they had to limit the speed and size of e-bikes, too. The rules were loosely enforced and left a loophole. If it's got a pedal, it's a bicycle. The original standards put the maximum speed of an electric bike at 20 kilometers per hour (a little more than 12 mph). But e-bikes' power soon outpaced that. Some are capable of 25 mph or more.

　　到1998年时，监管部门也意识到了他们必须限制电动自行车的速度和大小。可是当时的规定执行乏力并且存在漏洞。如果车辆装有脚踏板，那么它就算是自行车。最初，电动自行车的速度上限是每小时20公里（约合每小时12英里）。但是电动自行车的马力很快就超过了这一规定，有的车辆时速能达到每小时40公里（约合每小时25英里），甚至更快。

　　The market grew slowly at first. That changed after China was hit by severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, in 2003. National e-bike sales jumped from 1.5 million in 2002 to 4 million in 2003 as commuters sought an alternative to crowded public transport, where germs spread quickly.

　　电动自行车的市场发展一开始有所放缓。但在中国2003年爆发了严重的非典(SARS)疫情后，情况出现了改变。2003年中国的电动自行车总销量从上年的150万辆激增至400万辆，因为人们试图在病菌传播迅速的公交系统之外给自己找到其他代步工具。

　　Electric-bike fatalities rose, too. In 2003, 87 people were killed in e-bike accidents. A year later, 589 died.

　　电动自行车造成的重大交通事故也在增多。2003年87人因为电动自行车事故死于非命，第二年，这一人数就猛增至589人。

　　The deaths led to a backlash. Beijing and Fuzhou banned electric bikes in 2002. Beijing lifted its ban in 2006.

　　这些死亡事件引发了对电动自行车的反对声音。北京和福州在2002年禁止了电动自行车。北京于2006年又取消了禁令。