Riding bicycles to get around a motorcycle ban

Residents in Yangon’s Dala township have found a way around a junta-imposed ban on the use of motorbikes, electric bikes and sidecars after a local official was killed by motorcycle-riding assailants last year.

Instead, residents are using bicycles and trishaws, three-wheeled passenger carts powered by human pedaling.

The ban was imposed after the May 2022 killing of a junta-appointed administrator in Dala, which lies across the Yangon River from Myanmar’s biggest city. Each day, more than half of Dala’s 180,000 residents commute into Yangon for work.

This past August, authorities also prohibited the use of e-bikes and sidecars, seeing them as a security risk.

Members of the rebel People’s Defense Forces – ordinary citizens who have taken up arms to fight the junta, which overthrew the civilian government in a 2021 coup – have used motorbikes to kill other local administrators, too.

The motorbikes made it easy for the rebel fighters to get away quickly and navigate Dala’s dark, narrow alleys and streets.

These days, residents corral their bikes in designated areas at the port crossing from Dala to Yangon. 

Motorcycle taxi drivers and couriers also have made the switch to trishaws, three-wheeled passenger carts powered entirely by the cyclist.