Motorcycle taxi driver Li Mingqing earned more than usual on Monday thanks to the dramatically reduced competition.

"Following the ban on driving motorcycles, there were fewer drivers on the roads today. So my business was good," Li said.

However, the 40-year-old driver admitted that he has to be very cautious and avoid the police. "If detected twice by traffic police in the next few days, my business will come to stop."

Sources with the local traffic police authority said motorcyclists have 15 days left to discard their vehicles since the ban took effect on January 1 in the downtown areas of Guangzhou, capital city of south China's Guangdong Province.

Since January 1, police have set up 30 posts along urban streets to enforce the ban.

It means, for some drivers like Li, they still have time to stop using their motorcycles.

"I will try and run my business until the last day, if I can, and then find another job," he said.

However, he said the prospects of finding a new job look very dim.

Li, from the coastal village of Zhanjiang in southwestern Guangdong, has been using his motorcycle as a taxi for four years in Guangzhou.

"If there are no suitable jobs, I will probably go back home to farming," he said.

Unlike Li, many of his friends, who also have been using their motorcycles as taxis for years in Guangzhou, will move to the suburbs to continue.

The ban is to curb pollution and crack down on motorcycle crime.

Xian Weixiong, head of the Guangzhou Communication Commission, has warned that motorcyclists will have their vehicles confiscated from January 16.

"We still see some motorcycles on the city's major roads. But there is no doubt they will soon disappear," Xian said.

Following the ban, many residents who used to go to work by motorcycle, are now using the metro system and the buses.

Xian said the city has amended its bus routes to make more buses available to pick up passengers outside metro stations.

"The ban on motorcycles will benefit us. We have constantly been afraid of robbers using motorcycles to make good their escape," said a 56-year-old resident, surnamed Huang.

"But bus services and the metro system have become too busy now. Public transportation needs to be more efficient to accommodate the increase in passengers," Huang said.

Some residents living in the suburbs have also found it too inconvenient to travel to the downtown areas since the ban.

Gong Xiaoqing, who lives in the newly-established suburb district of Luogang, had to wait for almost one hour for a bus on January 1.

"Besides the bus, I have no other choice," Gong said.

"I hope more bus routes will be established."

(China Daily January 4, 2007)