Postby brumby33 » Thu Dec 22, 2022 7:07 pm
baabaa, I think you've hit the nail on the head in regards to how these accidents came to be.
I was recently in Japan during their Summer period (bloody hot) in Mid July and most of August. and observed the general cycling community and yes many are quite old, from say 60-mid 80's, they mainly go to and from the Shopping centres, the commuters aging from 25-50 yrs, bike parking at every station is chock-a-block with bikes.
It's extremely rare to see anyone wear a helmet unless they are riding a racing bike, many women wear wide brimmed hats and men just wear baseball caps or nothing at all.
Many school kids ride their bikes to and from school, from year 6 to Senior High and many young people who are over the age to have a car license don't bother, they either cycle or catch the fantastic public transport on offer.
As you pointed out, riding on the footpath is popular because in most places, it's allowed unless a sign says you can't. Footpaths however in most city areas are quite wide but on main thoroughfares, there's not footpaths and so riding on the roads is the only way.
Bike must avoid and give way to Pedestrians and cars must give way to Bicycles. One caveat is that if you do hit a ped, you could be sued bigtime and you're deemed at fault. When cops are bored and not busy, you can pull you over just to check you out and if you're a foreigner, you better have your Passport or Alien card with you (alien cards are for those who currently reside in Japan.
My M-I-L is 82, she'll ride her bicycle to the shopping centre and then wheel it home like a trolley carrying boxes full of bottles of Tea and boxes of water on the back rack and groceries in the front basket, I was amazed at how she coped with it all.
The speed limit for main thoroughfares in the burbs is 40kph and usually in the back streets it's only 30kph so I don't know where or how those amounts of accidents are happening. In that report, it says from 2017 to 2021 that over 2,145 ppl lost their lives during bicycle accidents, but over that 4 year period, how many Millions of people all over Japan actually ride their bicycles on the daily basis, about the majority of them so it's extremely tiny percentages we're looking at in real life but the Japanese Government in general are very react full when citizens in any numbers and especially the elderly get injured or killed. In Japan, the elderly are a very powerful voting force and they believe in following the letter of the law.
brumby 33
"ya gotta hold ya mouth right"
VWR Patagonia 2017
2003 Diamondback Sorrento Sport MTB
