320th Post – Don’t ride you bicycle on the the sidewalk! Fukuoka, Japan
Title says it all! Enjoy.
Quesitons from a Japan Blog: Basic Black
1. What’s your favorite Japanese food?
Sushi, Sashimi –
2. What sound in the urban environment do you like best?
Any music/noise blaring from a white kei truck.
3. What part of your daily routine do you despise most?
Parking anywhere.
4. Who is your favorite celebrity?
Sanma
5. Do you speak Japanese?
Yes, fluently.
6. Can you read Japanese?
Yes, perhaps better than I can speak. I love to read.
7. When did you first come to Japan?
1999.
8. Do you like karaoke?
It grew on me over the years. Now I seldom turn down a night out singing.
10. What are your favorite books by Japanese authors?
Want to be orginal with this one, however gotta go with Murakami Haruki
11. What’s the best holiday you’ve had in Japan?
Anytime in the spring – Anywhere -
12. Have you ever been in the media in Japan?
No.
13. What do you think about Japanese Macaque monkeys?
Not sure about these monkeys.
14. Do you bow?
Often.
15. What aspect of Japanese culture has made an indellible impression on you?
Trains are on time, the taxi driver won’t try and rip you off, things usually work in Japan.
January 30th, 2008 at 1:49 pm
I try to ride my bike safely every day, and I support this. No survival of the fittest in our streets, please. Pedestrians > bicycles > motor vehicles.
January 31st, 2008 at 4:19 am
So, where are you supposed to ride your bike? If I read the Japanese sign correctly, it does say you can rid, but that you should ride slowly.
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January 31st, 2008 at 8:49 am
I always thought a well placed straight arm as people were riding by would fix the problem…
I’m sure you’ve seen some of the damage caused by bicycle vs. pedestrian accidents. It was a bit more brutal than I had realized.
Feel better soon!
February 3rd, 2008 at 1:55 pm
Strange they wrote the sign in English and not Japanese.
I normally walk, but on the odd occasions that I have biked it I normally ride on the sidewalk, mainly because it’s safer. But I think back home it’s actually against the law, you’re expected to ride on the road. Plus additional requirement of wearing a helmet regardless of where you ride.
But I must admit I don’t like bikes on the sidewalk, I’ve seen some idiots tearing through crowded areas of Watanabe Dori, and I wouldn’t be surprised one day if they hit someone, which could be a show-stopper for an elderly person.
Plus I hate it when bikes come up behind you and ring their bell meaning “get out of my way”. I won’t share my thoughts on this
But then I hate cars as well. If I had my way the streets in the inner city would be cleared for bikes and essential services.
A bit off topic, but in Fukuoka they have raised yellow markings on the footpath to make it easier for vision impaired people to get around. That is of course as long as people don’t park their bikes on the yellow line. Saw a blind guy get owned by one just a couple a days ago.
February 15th, 2008 at 1:48 am
The evidence from the reserches showed that bicycling on sidewalks and similar facilities is more hazardous than bicycling on streets.
http://www.bikexprt.com/bikepol/facil/sidepath/
Japanese police won’t accept this kind of results or they have to put the blame on themselves for very high fatalitiy
of cyclists in this country.
In these 30 years,since they start kicking bikes out of the road,many cyclists killed by cars.By contrast,many countries keep bikes out of sidewalk have reduced fatalities by half.
Don’t ride on the sidewalk for your own safety.
“Cyclists fare best when they act and are treated as drivers of vehicles.”
April 16th, 2008 at 4:32 am
Hiya Nathan, very interesting video as always
I love the space cadets! Ah, Japan.
Anyway I am presenting today at the TCC conference and am planning to mention your vlog. This will probably bring more viewers to your vlog.
Please get better soon!
Aloha,
Becca
June 11th, 2008 at 7:53 pm
[...] Don’t ride you bicycle on the the sidewalk! Fukuoka, Japan (video) [...]
July 18th, 2008 at 6:15 am
From the left field ( and staying in it )
I recently wrote the following to a vehicular cycling advocates’ group in Japan who are appalled that the law has been changed to allow cyclists there to ride on pavements,-as they(even the Police) have always chosen to do.
The fact that so many people choose to cycle in Japan has a lot to do with their not being forced onto the road with motorised traffic.
Young children, teenagers, women with kids, middle aged women, the elderly,
the unfit and unsporty,- are all well represented in the utility cycling demographic in Japan.
I know,- I cycled on pavements (and on roads) there every day for 10 years (in and around Nagoya, Yokkaichi and Kyoto).
Where I’m living now, in Christchurch, New Zealand’s (mythically) ‘most
cycle-friendly’ city, less than 2% (and falling) of traffic is cyclists.
Cycling on sidewalks is illegal (and enforced) and the above-mentioned demographic groups are extremely poorly represented among cyclists.
-They WON’T ride on the road with traffic,-even where there are cycle lanes.
The vast majority of cyclists in New Zealand are young(ish) men, assertive
advocates of ‘vehicular cyclism’, riding mountain bikes and road racers
as fast as they can, who for the main part seem to think that anyone on
a bicycle should behave as they do.
The cycling advocacy movement is strongly influenced by their
perspective, perceptions and assertions,-all backed up with statistics
of course…-which plays into the hands of the auto-lobby because
keeping middle-aged women, children and the elderly off the pavements
keeps them from taking up cycling AT ALL,-which, by keeping the numbers
down and the cycling demographic narrow, emasculates the cycle advocate
lobby’s technocratic approach to ‘encouraging’ cycling by compelling
everyone to ride on the roads or where possible, by providing cycle lanes,
because local government councillors, who have the last word, are
hamstrung without having the political credibility that the numbers
which a universally inclusive cycling demographic would give them,-to
secure funding for the establishment of cycling infrastructure which
has actual ( not just ‘asserted’) separation from motor vehicles.
Cycling advocates need to realise that we cyclists are not all the same and
that we all have different styles of riding, preferences and needs.
If the Japanese Police were to force all cyclists onto the road (which your group is advocating ) I have little doubt that you’d see a similar death of cycling to that which we have experienced here in New Zealand.
If I’m in a big hurry, I want to be have the right to ride on the road, but if I’m not, as one who is choosing the preferable (emission free) ‘way forward’, I also want the right to choose to ride on pavements where I see it is preferable and safe.
Alan Preston in Christchurch, New Zealand