Motorcycle plate registration centers around the city have been flooded with applicants as temporary plates issued for scooters and mopeds in the past three years expire on March 1.
Staff at the Jing'an center, near the Shanghai Railway Station, told Shanghai Daily yesterday about 370 people applied on Monday — three times the average.
In 2014, the government required scooters and mopeds to be registered and aims to gradually remove illegal ones from the road for safety and environmental reasons.
At the Jing'an center yesterday, Zhang Meide, who has just bought a new scooter, had applied for a temporary plate three years ago because she was told that her previous scooter was not government approved.
"I thought I'd finally replace that one on the last day of the grace period, but I decided to come earlier anyway," she said.
Zhang received a new plate — a rectangular one resembling a car plate but much smaller — within five minutes of submitting her identity card, a photocopy and the receipt and certificate of quality of her scooter.
In Jiading District, about 600 applicants come daily to get plates for their new scooters and mopeds at the application center on Jia'an Highway, an official there told Shanghai Daily.
The traffic police said that riders of scooters and mopeds without appropriate plates will be fined up to 200 yuan ($30).
The list of legal scooters and mopeds is available on www.shbicycle.com, but the content is only in Chinese, although the law does apply to foreigners.
Shanghai allows only scooters and mopeds with a top speed less than 20 kilometers an hour and less than 30 centimeters wide and 1.35 meters long.
There are 18 bike plate application centers in 16 districts, with three in Pudong. They work from 8:30am to 5pm, Monday to Saturday.
