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Staff Reporter
Seoul City launched a campaign Tuesday to replace air-polluting scooters used by pizza and other food deliverymen with eco-friendly electronic motorbikes.
According to the city government, over 50,000 scooters with engines smaller than 50 CCs are registered, of which 30,000 are used for food delivery services, from Chinese restaurants to pizza chains.
``We hope the campaign will help reduce noise and air pollution to make the capital cleaner and quieter,'' a city official said.
Motorcycles cause only about 3.6 percent of the total air pollution in Seoul. However, a motorbike can produce much more polluting and harmful substances than a car ― the amount of carbon monoxide from a motorbike is eight times higher than that of a car with the engine capacity of 1500 cc. The amount of hydrocarbon emitted by a motorbike is 140 times higher than a car.
An electronic scooter can travel up to 40 kilometers out of 50 kilometers per hour without producing any harmful substances. It only takes four hours to be fully recharged, which costs only 3.2 percent of the cost of a gasoline motorbike.
``The electronic scooters have no problems in traveling short distances for delivery services except for very steep roads. They will also make much less noise,'' the official said.
One hitch is the price of the bike. An electronic bike is sold at about 3 million won, which is much more expensive due to the lack of mass production. A gasoline bike now costs around 1.3 million won.
e3dward@koreatimes.co.kr
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