Wanted to comment on this even though it has been a month. Like the previous poster have said, the ban was to reduce crime using motorcycle, traffic (since a lot of rider don't follow the law back then and other problems.) IMO banning motorcycle caused a lot of traffic, since a lot of them have changed to driving a car. They should have instead enforce the law and charge a fine or deduct points. In Jiangmen, people are scared to drive under the influence of alcohol now since there is a road check. Riders don't even dare to not follow the traffic rules since the fine is in a way steep (Well for Chinese, even the regular rich person, paying anything $100 to $1000 for small infractions is a lot. They don't feel like wasting money over something they can prevent themselves) and risk of points getting deducted. Traffic has become a lot better and was more effective than a ban. (Jiangmen don't dare banning motorcycle since the city is a major producer). Heavy load electric bike with long range have replace motorcycle and they can reach to 40km/h (that is really the normal speed people ride in the city, not the highway), so I don't really see the point of ban.
Electric bicycle was ban once in Shenzhen and Guanzhou and this was lifted, since it was classified as bicycle. Shenzhen also once wanted to ban bicycle, but I remember reading an article stating that banning bicycle was unconstitutional (I thing Mao personally said something in regarding to it and was a constitution or something) to they never dare banning bicycle and have to lift the ban on electric bicycle. Citizen of the 2 city have used electric bicycle to move goods. Only Shenhen (out of the 2 mentioned city) use it to carry passengers.
