Summary: Japan has introduced strict new penalties for cyclists using mobile phones or riding under the influence, aiming to curb rising bicycle accidents. Cyclists caught using phones now face up to six months in jail or a 100,000 yen fine ($655; £508), while riding drunk can lead to three years in prison or a 500,000 yen fine ($3,278; £2,541). These rules follow a rise in bicycle accidents, which now account for over 20% of Japan’s traffic incidents, as cycling grew during the pandemic. The measures build on recent laws requiring helmets and imposing fines for cycling violations.
What are those cyclists having accidents with? Magical monoliths that appear out of nowhere or… cars?
While cycling in Tokyo, you either zigzag through convoluted residential street, risk it on large avenues with sharrows or annoy pedestrians by riding on sidewalks. This is not sustainable, something has to give.
I’ve had my jaw fractured by a cyclist who knocked into me due to not paying attention. I now have an ugly scar because of it.
There’s all kinds of obstacles in cities. Including hundreds of thousands to millions of people. I can tell you from experience that a bike going into you at 30-40 km/h will hurt.
It’s not at all unreasonable to be against people pissing about on their phones while cycling.
The issue is compounded by cyclists who ride through pedestrian areas, cyclists who seem to think red lights don’t apply to them, and people getting electric bikes and whizzing around effortlessly at a high speed.
You would be dead if it were a car.
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Wait… You’re telling me bicycles aren’t the answer?
Oh boy, the folks over at the fuckcars community are going to lose their shit!
Edit: obviously I misjudged how widespread and humorless the community of fuckcars is. 🤣
I don’t know, maybe you missed this or something. Don’t know where you got the idea that bikes themselves are bad.
First, who are you quoting?
Second, my comment was a tongue in cheek comment about how the noisy majority of cyclists claim that with bikes all the problems we have with cars goes away.
I’ll have to agree with them, but that’s only because the problems with cars go away when cars are removed from the equation. Then new problems arise, problems that involve bikes. Problems like, people who are paying more attention to their phone than where they’re going on their bike, smashing into other people, smashing into buildings, smashing into vehicles.
Those sound like really familiar problems… It’s almost as if you shouldn’t drive or operate any vehicle while you’re not paying attention. But that can’t be the problem. Not on my bike!
Literally the person four comments above this one, right before yours. You gotta slow down when reading comments dude.
Bikes obviously have their place. For the time being, so do cars (although cities could certainly benefit from being less car-centric).
The operator of neither should be pissing about on their phones, both for their own safety and the safety of others.
You’ve waited years for this moment, haven’t you?
Longer than you could possibly imagine.
Yeah… Whenever I’m on foot in the city I’m twice as nervous about being hit by a cyclist as I am a car.
They ride on sidewalks, don’t stop at lights, weave through pedestrians at crosswalks, etc.
They seem to be so full of themselves for not being in a car that they forget that they can also injure people.
This might be survivorship bias. If you get hit by a cyclist, you might - worst case Ontario - break a limb or something if they send you flying into something else. If you get hit by a driver, you are definitely going to break something and you will most likely die.
As for how likely it is that you actually get hit - do you think it’s easier to avoid a 2’ x 6’ object moving at 15 mph or a 8’ x 16’ object moving at 45 mph?
The cars are where I expect them to be - and they are much more likely to slow if they see me on the crosswalk. Dude on a bike just swerves around me at speed.
Cyclists like to think they’re still pedestrians when it suits their purpose.
I used to bike like this when I was a teenager, and I try not to now. If someone was in the crosswalk, I’d slightly adjust my speed and path to pass behind or in front of them as space allowed, just like they were any other obstacle. Because I didn’t realize how unpleasant it feels to be startled by a bike going past, or even if you know they’re coming it’s still uncomfortable that they’re going fast.
As a biker it took me a lot of life experience to realize that even if the situation was perfectly safe (I’ve always been in control and never hit anyone), pedestrians are not unreasonable for disliking bikes riding fast in their personal space.
But in a lot of countries, bikes have to be like pedestrians sometimes because the bike infrastructure is so spotty or non-existant. You’ll try to use the bike path but it just ends. Or there’s so safe way to turn left, or whatever.
But in other places, like Berlin, Germany, old people will yell at you if you’re biking in the wrong place and it’s pretty great because there’s usually a good bike path right there that you could be using.
PS. In my walking experience, bikes are way more likely to see me if I’m crossing a crosswalk than cars. Sometimes cars drive right through when you’re waiting to cross, where a biker will usually acknowledge me and let me cross.
Fair response - thanks for your insight.
shrug Where I live, cars feel (and know) that they’re invincible and likely to suffer no punishment if they kill someone.
Drivers like to think that they can do no wrong all the time, not just when it suits their purpose.
Then you don’t care about your life.
🙄 bikes can do no harm