Bicycle safety laws ignored

Riding home from work at night (in Tokyo), I do see the police stopping cyclists on occasion, usually for not having any lights, but also for riding double or blatantly ignoring red lights. Still, even riding every night I only see this maybe once a month (compared to seeing unsafe riding at five times a night) During the daytime, however, I’ve yet to see them do anything. Which is too bad, because as a cyclist, the most frequent hazards I encounter are clueless cyclists riding on the wrong side of the street (at night with no lights, just to add to the quick-reflex challenge) and not paying attention where they’re going.

Most of the time when they do stop people, it’s pretty obvious they’ve decided to set aside the evening for cyclist hunting, like when I’ve seen three of them hiding behind a corner on a pedestrian/cyclist bridge, or waiting at the end of one of the ramps from the Arakawa bike path (always in good weather). It seems like they hardly ever stop people on the spur of the moment. If this TV report was recent, I expect to see another round of police doing the ‘be seen doing something’ dance this week.

Still, despite the stereotype of gaijin on bikes always getting stopped by the police, I’ve never been pulled over, even once. The closest was when two police on bikes stopped to help me out while I was fixing a flat, and once when I was caught in a downpour and a cop shouted from inside his koban to ask if I was ok. I guess soemtimes pays to be one of those road racer freaks dressed head-to-toe in spandex.

People ignore the laws because they’re ridiculous, reactionary regs passed by lame politicians in a vain effort to be seen doing something and justifying their existence while trying to nerf all the harsh corners of the world, instead of teaching folks to toughen up a bit.

The only things these rules and policies engender is further disrespect and discounting of the law.

As I commented on “Bicycle helmets for children in Japan” (http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=10870), I just saw a schoolgirl get thumped by a scooter at slow speed after she ignored a stop sign coming around a blind corner into oncoming traffic tonight! Stupid thing to do! She was OK, apparently.

I’m very surprised to find out smoking and/or eating while cycling is illegal in Japan, and carries a 50,000yen fine (is that right?).

We’ve all seen people smoking, writing emails, eating, and drinking while cycling. But have you ever seen someone walking their dog, smoking a cigarette, while holding an umbrella and riding their bicycle at the same time!? Not to mention the old guy was doing it in the pouring rain. It should be physically impossible!

If you ever see the gaijin riding his bicycle around Mitaka/Kichijoji ringing his bell every time he comes to an intersection or blind corner because he knows some idiot is about to come screaming around the corner and bash into him, it’s probably me.

Is this one reason why the cops won’t do anything about rogue cyclists? – like where junior high school girls are involved:

http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=4299