Focus on "small chartered car" under hidden safety hazards
Jiang Tianjiao, reporter of Economic Daily and China Economic Net
In the school season again, many parents choose to use motorcycles to transport their children to and from school. Motorcycles have always been the main means of public transportation for short-distance trips due to their light, flexible and fast characteristics. According to statistics from the China Bicycle Association, as of the end of 2019, the number of motorcycles in my country was close to 300 million. Although motorcycles have brought a lot of convenience to people’s travel, road traffic accidents caused by chaos caused by motorcycles on the road, speeding, overloading, and violations of traffic regulations, and fires caused by motorcycle batteries have also accompanied the country and society. The irreparable loss of life and property.
Illegal placement of "small chartered cars" causes frequent accidents
Recently, in Tuncheng Town, Tunchang County, Hainan, the news that a yellow shared motorcycle had a serious traffic accident due to overload has attracted widespread public attention. According to the traffic police, the three minors were riding a shared motorcycle at the time of the incident, and none of them were wearing safety helmets. It is understood that the motorcycle involved in the accident can only be ridden by one person, and the motorcycle is marked with words such as "No one is allowed to ride a bicycle", "No one is allowed to ride a bicycle under the age of 16." However, due to the weak legal awareness of some cyclists and the design of some motorcycle manufacturers to take advantage of the new national standard, leaving room for riders and overloading, leading to continuous road tragedies.
It is understood that there are two types of mainstream motorcycles on the market. One is similar to ordinary bicycles, with a booster system installed and cannot carry people and goods; the other is similar to mopeds with longer pedals between the front and rear wheels. At the same time, the seat is also longer, and cyclists often carry people or cargo, which is called "small chartered car" in the industry.
The views of Liu Shi, a professor at the Beijing People’s Police College who has long been engaged in traffic safety research, represent the current common views of experts and scholars in related fields. He introduced that "small chartered vehicles" illegally carry people and goods, which will increase the weight of the motorcycle and change the center of gravity. In the event of an emergency, it is easy to lose control of the brakes and lose the balance of the body, causing more serious traffic. accident. Liu Shi said that illegally carrying people and cargo is one of the biggest safety hazards of motorcycles.
What is more vigilant is that the current shared motorcycle industry is also introducing such "small chartered vehicles" and putting them on a large scale for operation in second and third tier cities. This kind of model that seems to provide convenience for cyclists has invisibly contributed to the overload of cyclists. The bad habits of people bring great hidden dangers to traffic safety.
Liu Shi believes that the shared motorcycle industry has the characteristics of high frequency of use and large age range of users. The choice of vehicle models should pay more attention to the safety features of users of different age groups. The riding speed and weight of the bicycle are lower than ordinary electric motorcycles. Car model. At the same time, we must resolutely put an end to riding to carry people and cargo. "From this perspective, there are obvious hidden dangers to riding safety in'small chartered vehicles'."
Where is the development of shared motorcycles
The frequent occurrence of "small chartered vehicles" safety accidents has aroused the close attention of traffic management departments in various places. Not long ago, some cities in Sichuan, Hubei, Liaoning and other places have begun to retire shared motorcycles. Traffic police who are engaged in front-line law enforcement work said that 20% to 30% of traffic fatalities involve motorcycles. On the one hand, it is caused by bad riding habits such as cyclists speeding, illegally carrying people and carrying goods; on the other hand, due to the chaos in the motorcycle market, some unscrupulous manufacturers and sales companies ignore the national technical specifications and modify their models privately. , Fish in troubled waters brings safety hazards to cyclists.
Despite this, the shared motorcycle market is still developing "stubbornly". Batches of "small chartered vehicles" entered Shenyang, Changsha, Hohhot, Harbin and other cities on a large scale. The reporter learned that because most cities have clear regulations that discourage the development of electric bicycles as shared bicycles, the development space of the shared motorcycle market has already been restricted by strict policies, and the entry of a large number of illegally placed "small chartered vehicles" is even more endangered To the survival of shared motorcycles. Recently, the traffic police in Dongguan, Guangdong conducted a thorough clean-up of shared motorcycles that were parked illegally in the city without permission. They seized 2,817 shared motorcycles that day and interviewed related companies to order them to be recovered. The Chengdu City Management Committee of Sichuan, together with the municipal traffic police and municipal transportation departments, jointly seized 11,000 "small chartered vehicles" of a certain brand and ordered them to rectify within a time limit. In addition, city management departments in Shenyang, Liaoning, Nanning, Guangxi, Kunming, Yunnan and other places have successively issued “small chartered cars” launched by shared motorcycle manufacturers.
The illegal release of a large number of "small chartered vehicles" cast a shadow over the development prospects of the already struggling shared motorcycle market. This year, new regulations on motorcycles have been implemented in many places, requiring motorcycles to be licensed on the road and riders must wear helmets. These two points cannot be completely solved in a short period of time by sharing motorcycles, and consumers cannot use them with confidence.
The safety of shared motorcycles is a constraint to its development and restricts the large-scale development of the industry. In terms of user experience, on the one hand, the large influx of small local manufacturers do not have the qualifications, and the motorcycles provided do not meet the new national standard, and some products cannot even guarantee the safe use of consumers; on the other hand, because there is no matching helmet, the There is generally a lack of awareness of traffic safety among riders, and there is also no effective safety guarantee.
In terms of product design, motorcycles also have many problems. Summer is often a period of high incidence of safety accidents. Recently, motorcycle battery explosion accidents have occurred frequently. At about 18:00 on August 17, a factory building near Xianjian Village, Hongshan District, Wuhan City, Hubei Province suddenly caught fire, and the fire spread rapidly. According to insiders, the fire site was a shared electric bicycle charging plant, and the iron sheet plant had partially collapsed after experiencing the fire. At present, the safety management level and standards of motorcycle charging warehouses are uneven, and the fire disposal and self-rescue capabilities are unknown. Once a fire occurs, the spread speed is high, the property loss is large, the social impact is large, and the consequences are disastrous.
If the series of issues from policy supervision to safety assurance cannot be fundamentally solved, the vision of large-scale development of shared motorcycles can only be a castle in the sky.
The person in charge of the traffic control department said that the phenomenon of motorcyclists carrying people and goods and causing traffic accidents should be highly valued and treated. However, the current legal requirements and penalties across the country are different. In the specific law enforcement process, there are also problems such as large violations, difficulty in obtaining evidence, and limited law enforcement capabilities. While strengthening management and strict law enforcement, it also requires the joint efforts of motorcycle-related manufacturers, platform operators and cyclists.
Traffic safety experts urge that, on the one hand, due to their special attributes in society, motorcycle operating platform companies should strictly follow the new national standard when choosing models, and try not to use "small chartered" models. In addition, AI and other technologies should be used to identify violations. Manned behavior, early warning and intervention for violations, etc. For example, in response to the phenomenon of motorcycle overload, the development of anti-carrying technology, after unlocking the vehicle, can intelligently identify the number of passengers based on the center of gravity, once the system recognizes the overload, the vehicle will not be able to start; on the other hand, cyclists should also fully understand the load. The potential safety hazards of people carrying cargo, improve personal safety awareness, abide by laws and regulations, use vehicles safely, and standardize riding from oneself.