Apart from people and apart from vending machines, one thing that Tokyo is absolutely jam packed with is bikes. From the toughest Kendo masters to the oldest grannies everyone has a pretty pastel coloured cycle with a basket on the front and if you walk down any road in Shakuji Koen you will probably see more cyclists than pedestrians. And then there are the ones that you don't see...
It has long been my opinion that the British "no cycling on the pavement" laws should be abolished. Of course there's the danger of a pedestrian being hit by a cyclist, but at the moment there's the danger of a cyclist being hit by a car... and which one is more likely to be fatal?
The worst a pedestrian-cyclist accident is going to cause is a broken limb, probably for the cyclist. A car-bike accident on the other hand will quite likely end in death and at the very least will mean a heavily fractured cyclist and an expensive paintjob for the driver. The government should let bikes on the pavement and watch the fatalities fall (rather than the bicycles). Or so I thought.
Japan has been a good test of my adherence to this theory, for in Japan cycling on the pavement is not only legal but expected. The things whizz up behind you as quiet as mice and hurtle past at 20 miles per hour scaring the living daylights out of you. I won't lie, it's bad, but if you stay here long enough you not only get used to it, you develop a sixth "bike sense".
The biggest problem with the "bikes on pavements" system is that when you meet one coming head on you have to do the "is he going to go left or is he going to go right" shuffle. Only at bike speed it isn't a shuffle but a panicked left right wobble-dance followed by a jump into the hedge
Such pavement anarchy may be inconvenient, but it's far preferable to sending our two wheeled friends to their graves. Unless the government plans to go the whole hog and copy the wonderful example set by Holland, pavement cycling should most certainly be legalized. People would complain of course, but they do that anyway!
(On a different note entirely, I've noticed that my dormitory manager refers to himself in the third person. As present Duncan has no idea why this is. He'll tell you if he finds out.)
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9 comments:
Duncan-san, or is it Duncan-son, or is it Dan-son/san, since it's Thursday?
A cyclist was jailed in England just a few months ago for killing a pedestrian. The pedestrian's family weren't that pleased.
The statistics are on your side of course - though I wouldn't care to walk a toddler down a pavement full of whizzing bicycles.
That debate aside, please can you bring me home a pretty pastel-coloured bicycle? You know I'm worth it.
Love Mum
Interesting statistics from here:
"It is estimated that there are almost 90 million bicycles in Japan. That means that nearly everyone in the country rides one, and with a fifth of the population already over the age of 65, that amounts to a lot of elderly people on two wheels. Throw into the mix cluttered sidewalks and a few too many younger cyclists in a hurry, and you have the makings of a grand pile up. Little wonder, then, that according to police statistics, there were almost 3,000 crashes between cyclists and pedestrians in 2006, almost five times more than the number a decade ago."
However, Richard Kimber goes on to say:
"Over the next two years, some 200 kilometers of cycle lanes are being marked out in almost 100 different areas across Japan’s busiest cities. The new bicycle lanes will be color-coded and divided from the main traffic by lines of trees or railings. An official from the Construction and Transport Ministry was quoted as saying that the hope was to create “a road network in which bicycles and pedestrians can coexist.”"
As far as I can tell, this article was published last month. Unfortunately, 200 km is not much when spread across Japan's large cities. I hope they hire some Dutch advisors to help with the project.
Hi Duncan
So sorry to have committed the awful faux-pas of calling myself San. I shall never do it again!
What I would like you to tell us about if you ever have a "slow" day for blogging news (not that this has happened so far!)is your fellow students at the Japanese course. Are they equally boys and girls? What ages are they? Where do they come from? Have they come in pairs/groups? Where have they learned their Japanese before?
Also ditto for your dormitory mates. If you feel not suitable for blog you could e-mail me: cathy@ianson.me.uk
Take care. Cathy xxx
There seem to be two copies of this post on your blog now (there was only one this afternoon).
BTW, a foible of your blog software is that when you preview a comment, you get a link under the preview to "publish your comment" It doesn't seem to work, at least not in Firefox with MacOS 10.3.9. I now go back to the top of the page and use the PUBLISH YOUR COMMENT box under the editing window.
Hi Duncan
It's Tom's Mum, hello Alyson too!
All this talk about milk and bikes so deja vu - just two of the things I link automatically to the Stibbard Hawkes family, my earliest memory of Duncan is with a big bottle of MILK. Tom's Uncle, Stephen, seen in Tom's photos, says he can smell dairy on Europeans! Not sure he can tell if they ride bicycles.
Ah well, 1.00am Friday morning. Wonder what the boys are doing in Japan. Love the blog.
Mum- I really want one myself, pastel blue with a basket. I'd ride it around leam toting a baguette and a beret. If only posting one wouldn't cost more than buying one.
Pa- It's anarchy, but per cyclist I bet there are fewer deaths. Of course there will be more cyclist deaths per head of the population, because everyone cycles. Oh why don't the English teach their children how to cycle?
Cathy-san- Don't worry, they let foreigners get away with a lot here. I'm not even expected to know how to use chopsticks.
My classmates aren't too interesting, but if there's a slow day for news I'll try to write something.
Pa (again)- I sent one from the Gmail which went a bit whacko yesterday. It didn't appear on the blog till I was pleasantly dreaming, so I had to add it into blogger manually.
My gmail post was sent fist, so popped up beneath the edited version. Lucky, as I didn't want to delete any body's comments.
Blogger is good but can go wrong. Still a few bugs to iron out. I'm afraid I have no idea what's causing the comment issue though.
Laura- I've always disliked milk and usually get my calcium fix with a dash of chocolate. I wonder if Stephen could smell the chocolate milk on me?
Dun-kun (it's now Friday)
I second the motion of Cathie-san. It would be good to hear more about the personalities and nationalities at school and in the dorm. I know they have nationalities. Do any of them have personalities?
Laura-chun, how touching that our big babies are Turning Japanese together (apologies to the big babies for embarrassing them in front of their friends). How are you coping with the reduced nest syndrome?
Cathie-chun, we must find a more direct way to communicate. I'll give you a ring tonight or over the weekend.
Love Aly-san
(okay, Dun-kun I know that's rude but I couldn' resist)
Chan, it's chan!
Have to agree on the bike thing - I'd be much more inclined to use one if I didn't have to cycle on the road. Not that it's ever stopped me in the past mind you... o.O
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