You must have seen it a lot in Chinese cities: people riding electric scooters（电动滑板车）to work or for fun.

    Riding electric scooters could seem cool at first sight. The scooter balances by itself with one or two wheels（轮子）. Some of them also have a handle（手柄）. Riders lean forward to make the scooter go faster. It also can stop if the rider shifts their weight backwards.

    However, starting from the end of August, people can no longer ride electric scooters on public roads. It is in the interests of traffic safety, according to Beijing's traffic authorities（官方）. There will be a 10 yuan fine（罚款）for those who ride scooters on the road. This follows Shanghai's decision to get scooters off the road last month.

    "The one-wheeled scooters can go as fast as 30km an hour and they don't have brakes（刹车系统）," a traffic policeman told Beijing Youth Daily. "Two-wheeled scooters can even go as fast as cars at 60km an hour. But their brakes cannot compete with that of a car. It's very easy for scooters to run into cars or buses or hurt people on roads."

    But this doesn't mean that scooters are only dangerous on public roads. People who ride them in doors or in their living places should also be careful, according to the Beijing Consumer Association.

    There are still no national safety standards for electric scooters and some of them are very dangerous.

    The association tested more than 20 electric scooters from different companies and found that most had safety problems. Nineteen scooters couldn't come to a full stop in less than 4 meters. This could be very dangerous.