北京电动自行车卷入一场公路阶级斗争

Beijing — A squeal of breaks, the screech of ripping metal and a battery-powered, three-wheel scooter — top-heavy with parcels for delivery — tips over after hitting a car. The courier picks himself up as the driver jumps out of his car, shouting and pointing at his vehicle’s shattered headlights.

北京——刹车声和刺耳的金属断裂声响起，一辆载满包裹、头重脚轻的电池动力三轮车在撞上一辆小汽车后翻倒在地。快递员从地上爬了起来；小汽车司机跳下车，指着被撞得粉碎的大灯大喊大叫。

It is another skirmish in the smoldering class war being waged on the roads of Beijing.

阶级斗争正以较为隐晦的方式在北京的马路上演，而这不过是其中又一场小冲突。

The growing number of private car drivers is at odds with the millions of residents who ride two- and three-wheeled electric cycles. The conflict has stirred emotions about inequality in urban China, pitting wealthy drivers against the blue-collar workers who need the electric bikes to make a living.

数量日益增多的私家车司机和数百万骑着两轮或三轮电动自行车的居民之间时有摩擦。冲突激起了人们对中国城市不平等问题的情绪，并让富有的私家车司机和以电动自行车为谋生工具的蓝领工人站在了对立面上。

“We’re just scapegoats,” said Liu Xiaoyan, an electric bike courier, who watched the aftermath of the crash, at an intersection in northeast Beijing. “They always say that electric bikes are the road killers, but the cars are the real killers.”

“我们只是替罪羊，”骑电动自行车送货的刘小燕说，“他们总是说电动自行车是马路杀手，但小汽车才是真正的杀手。”刘小燕在北京东北部的一个十字路口目睹了事故发生后的状况。

Electric bicycles have proliferated as a result of online sales and the demand for deliveries. Beijing and several other Chinese cities have moved to rein in the bikes, and some are considering outright bans.

网购的蓬勃发展催生了对快递的需求，进而造成了电动自行车保有量的激增。北京以及中国的其他几个城市已经开始实施针对电动自行车的限制措施；还有一些城市正考虑将其完全取缔。

The steps have been welcomed by car drivers who fume at cyclists who buzz through red lights and ride against traffic. Pedestrians also complain that the bikes honk noisily and take up sidewalks.

这些举措受到了小汽车司机的欢迎，骑着电动自行车闯红灯或逆行的人让他们感到恼火。行人也抱怨说，电动车会大声鸣喇叭，而且会占用人行道。

“I didn’t feel so unsafe cycling in Beijing before, but now you have all these food-delivery guys with very little training,” said Robert Earley, a Canadian entrepreneur working on clean transport initiatives in the capital. “In the past two years, I’ve been hit by bikes going the wrong way: one electric, one a motorbike.”

“以前我并不觉得在北京骑行是这么的不安全，但现在你得面对这些根本没怎么受过培训的送餐员，”致力于在北京推广清洁交通项目的加拿大创业者罗伯特·厄雷(Robert Earley)说。“过去两年间，我已经被逆行的单车撞了两次：一辆是电动自行车，一辆是摩托车。”

But electric bike owners and industry representatives said the bikes were being unfairly maligned for problems caused by the fact that there are too many cars. They have a point: In Beijing, cars often clog bike lanes and use sidewalks as parking lots with impunity.

但电动自行车车主及行业代表称，让电动自行车受到不公正指责的很多问题，都是由小汽车太多引发的。他们的话不无道理：在北京，小汽车常常把自行车道堵住，或把人行道当成停车场，并且不会受到惩罚。

“The motor vehicles have occupied all the lanes for electric bikes, so they have no place to go,” said Ma Guilong, a retired professor at Tsinghua University in Beijing, who is one of the country’s experts on electric vehicles.

“本属于电动自行车的所有车道都被机动车占用了，所以它们无路可走，”中国电动自行车领域的专家、北京清华大学退休教授马贵龙说。

“Many times I’ve been obediently riding in the bike lane and suddenly hit by a car,” Professor Ma said. “I’ve taken quite a few tumbles like that.”

“有好些回，我在自行车道上骑得好好的，突然就被小汽车撞了，”马贵龙说。“我就这样摔过好些次跤。”

Electric bikes have been a boon to online retailers. The bikes are popular with couriers, mostly migrants from the countryside, who speed deliveries through congested roads. When Shenzhen, a city in southern China, started impounding oversize or unregistered bikes in March, companies there said their customers were irate about late deliveries.

电动自行车是线上零售商的福音。这种自行车颇受送货员群体青睐，可以在拥挤的街道上穿行，帮助提高送货速度。当中国南方城市深圳从3月开始扣押尺寸过大或者未登记的电动自行车时，该市的一些企业称，送货延误让顾客怒火中烧。

“If there weren’t electric bikes, the logistics costs of e-commerce would rise,” said Guo Jinzhi, the chairwoman of the Beijing Bicycle Industry Association. “It would be very difficult for e-commerce to grow so quickly.”

“如果没有电动自行车，电子商务的物流成本就会升高，”北京市自行车行业协会会长郭金枝说，“它就很难发展得这么快。”

Beijing’s streets are not the most anarchic in China. But the friction here is striking. Since ancient times the roads of the capital were meant to be an orderly, geometric reflection of control, and for decades the roads have been divided between main roads for the few cars and side lanes intended for the river of bicycles.

与中国的其他城市相比，北京的街道并不是最混乱的。但这里发生的摩擦却是惊人的。从古至今，秩序井然、形状规整的北京街道本应是控制力的体现。数十年来，这里的街道已经被划分成了主路和辅路，主路上跑的是数量相对较少的汽车，辅路则是为成群的自行车准备的。

But riding on the busiest roads now can feel like a slowed-down scene from “Mad Max: Fury Road,” a churning cavalcade of cars, motorcycles, pedal and electric bikes, scooters, skateboarders, battery-powered micro-cars, Segway-like transporters and pedestrians who rely on sheer force of numbers to push through intersections.

但现在，在北京最繁忙的路段骑行，会感觉正置身于《疯狂麦克斯：狂暴之路》(Mad Max: Fury Road)的某个场景中，只不过速度不那么快：小汽车、摩托车、脚踏式电动自行车、踏板车、滑板车、电池动力微型汽车、赛格威(Segway)式的交通工具，以及靠着人多势众强行通过十字路口的行人，全都搅和在一起。

Cars perform abrupt U-turns and lane switches that defy regulations and the basic instincts of safety. Buses barge in and out of lanes.

小汽车会突然来个180度的大转弯或者变换车道，完全不顾交通规则，也有悖基本的安全本能。公共汽车会突然进入或离开某个车道。

“The traffic rules can be a hassle. We have to get around fast or the customers complain,” Wang Jinchun, 25, a fast-food courier, said as he loaded his bike with two batteries, each the size of a large shoe box.

“交通规则是个麻烦，我们必须尽快到达，否则顾客会投诉，”25岁的送餐员王晋春边说边往电动自行车上装货。车上安有两组电池，每组的尺寸都和一个大鞋盒差不多。

“But the cars are very dangerous, especially at night. Every day you feel that you are playing with your life,” Mr. Wang said, before riding off down the wrong side of a road.

“但路上的汽车十分危险，尤其是到了夜里。每天都感觉在玩命，”说完，王晋春逆行而去。

Chinese cities were far more sedate when bicycles ruled the road. Electric bikes first went on sale in 1995, but remained a novelty in a sea of pedaled bicycles.

在自行车主宰道路的时代，中国的城市比现在平静很多。电动自行车于1995年首次上市，但在脚踏自行车的汪洋大海里，它们一度是稀罕物。

Beijing now has 5.7 million motor vehicles on its roads, even with restrictions on new sales. The city has up to 2.5 million electric bicycles, and that number grows by 300,000 each year, said Ms. Guo, of the bicycle association. There are also hundreds of thousands of unregistered three-wheeled electric scooters, although the government tried to ban them in 2014.

目前，在新采取了某些限售措施的情况下，北京的机动车保有量已经达到570万辆。据北京市自行车行业协会会长郭金枝介绍，该市的电动自行车保有量则为250万辆，每年新增30万辆。这里还有数十万辆未登记的电动踏板三轮车，尽管市政府在2014年曾试图将其取缔。

“Over the past few years, they’ve become the main driver of urbanization in China,” said Ni Jie, the chairman of Luyuan Electric Vehicles, an electric bike manufacturer in eastern China, and a vocal defender of the industry. “It’s become a major mode of transport for the newly employed in China and workers from the countryside.”

“过去几年里，它们已经成为中国城市化进程的主要驱动力，”发声捍卫电动车行业的绿源电动车公司董事长倪捷说。绿源是中国东南部的一家电动车制造商。

The bikes cost just a few hundred dollars, no license is required, and only a few owners ever bother to register them.

只花几百美元就可以买一辆电动自行车，不需要获得驾驶执照，而且只有少数车主愿意去为它们办理登记手续。

“They’re a menace,” said Xing Dayong, a taxi driver who had just aimed a string of curses at a cyclist who swerved in front of his car. “They’re fast, they go the wrong way, and they don’t make a sound.”

“它们是一大威胁，”出租车司机邢大勇说这话前，刚刚连声咒骂过一个在其车前急转弯的骑行者。“它们速度快，逆行，还没声音。”

The central government keeps promising to do something, but appears mired by indecision. The standards that govern electric bicycles were introduced in 1999, but most new bikes violate the limits for speed, weight and battery size.

中央政府一直承诺要有所作为，但却显得优柔寡断。电动自行车行业的管理标准是在1999年推出的，但大多数新出产的电动自行车都违反了速度、重量、电池尺寸等方面的限制性规定。

By law, bikes can travel at a maximum speed of about 13 miles per hour, and weigh no more than about 90 pounds. But many bikes are much heavier, and souped-up models can reach almost 40 miles per hour, according to a recent test by a Beijing newspaper. The government has never set standards for the bigger and faster three-wheelers.

按照相关法规，电动自行车的最高时速不能超过13英里，整车重量不能大于90磅。但许多电动车都比这重得多；北京的一家报纸最近的测试结果显示，增加了马力的车型时速甚至可以超过40英里。政府从未就体型更大、速度更快的三轮车制定标准。

Instead, cities are taking action. The Beijing government revealed in March that electric bikes were involved in 113 fatalities last year, or 12 percent of the recorded traffic deaths, and 21,423 injuries, 37 percent of the injury total.

不过，一些城市正采取行动。北京市政府于今年3月透露，去年，该市发生的涉及电动自行车的事故，共造成113人死亡，2.14万余人受伤，分别占全市总数的12%和37%。

In April, Beijing banned electric bikes and three-wheelers from 10 stretches of road, including parts of Chang’an Avenue, the main thoroughfare. Bike owners and makers said they were worried that Beijing would copy Chinese cities that had imposed harsher restrictions.

北京从今年4月份开始禁止电动自行车和三轮车在10条道路上行驶，其中包括主干道长安街的部分路段。电动自行车车主和制造商称，他们担心北京会效仿那些采取了最严厉的限制措施的中国城市。

Shenzhen cracked down in March on electric cycles that are unregistered or deemed too big. Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong Province, has been considering a proposal to ban the riding or selling of electric bikes in much of the city. Critics have gone online to denounce the restrictions as a means of discriminating against migrant workers.

深圳在今年3月针对未注册或被认为尺寸过大的电动自行车开展了整治活动。广东省会广州正考虑出台一项在该市大部分地区禁骑或禁售电动自行车的条例。批评人士在网上谴责称，上述种种限制是对农民工的歧视。

“There’s no way to control them,” said Wu Ziguo, a migrant worker who rides a three-wheeler to deliver water-cooler bottles in Beijing. “If you try to restrict how people make a living, you’ll discover that the whole city depends on couriers for food, water, every need.”

“根本限制不了，”在北京骑三轮车送桶装水的吴子国（音）说。“你要限制老百姓谋生，会发现整座城市样样都离不开送货的，送餐送水，什么都是。”