Cycling in Japan

enas

Here's a nice narration of a British guy cycling in Japan. As you can see, he's very positive about his experience, and interestingly, this shows quite a different perspective from what's commonly accepted:

http://chestercycling.wordpress.com/2012/12/10/cycling-to-shibuya/

petethedrummer

I cycled a bit in Tokyo. While pedestrians seemed to religiously obey they rules, to the point of lunacy at times, noone on bikes did. It was a free for all. Great craic. There was no real need to lock your bike either.

Tokyo drivers like to do that pass and abruptly turn left maneouvre.

enas

petethedrummer wrote: »

Tokyo drivers like to do that pass and abruptly turn left maneouvre.

Hmm... That seems to contradict his view that:

Motorists are permitted to turn left but must defer to bicycle and foot traffic heading straight ahead. Again this works surprisingly well thanks to a technique which Japanese motorists have developed known as ‘paying attention.’

petethedrummer

enas wrote: »

Hmm... That seems to contradict his view that:

Maybe it has changed in the last 12 months but I had been warned about this and it happened a number of times while out cycling.

It's grand once you know it's likely to happen.