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Alittle rant and a question at the side....(newbie here)

yukun

Speeding Up
Feb 18, 2011
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The Rant;

Why do people here cycle against the flow of traffic here???!!!:mad:
Iv'e moved recently to japan(since last December) after having lived in southeast asia all my teenage life (17yrs now) due to a change in school and have almost been involved in a serious accident on two occasions within the space of only a month.

One was near takadanobaba station doing the yamanote loop on my xc bike, going at 30kph some ojisan suddenly pops out from the front of a sagawa kyubin truck...gosh boy did i brake for my life (luckily the toyota prius behind me was giving me adequate shyakankyori (distance between two motor vehicles), one thing i love about most of my fellow countrymen.

Another almost happened today near komazawa daigaku on the busy tamagawa doori in setagaya ward. Similar manner, some guy in an ss (not being prejudiced here, on the contrary i respect SS riders who tackle the slopes near ikejiri seriously at a pace that shames mtbers especially female ones(rather common here)). Same as before, luckily the tokyu (toukyu) bus behind had decent shyakankyori.

Gosh is there a way to prepare for such people??? Its starting to scare me off cycling fast on roads (usually 25-30kph average).I don't want to die young when iv'e even yet to reach hatachi(20yrs old) or have yet to have a hatsukoi(first relationship/love).

Well the rant part's finished. Now for my question(hope you could help).
My school in the eastern part of the 23 special wards has quite a few cyclists within my schoolmates and quite a few teachers who commute by cycling. I am thinking of setting up a cycling CCA(school group) which would be held on Saturday mornings.

I am planning on a 2-4 hours route per saturday with intentions of having training sessions on weekdays if there's demand. Is there a popular(balance of things to see/good training enviroment) (tamagawa route seems amateurish,though i have to admit i have yet to try it ) and safe (school parents committees are always brutal with these sorts of things)?? Has to be relatively free (very subjective i know) and have wide roads with lanes to fliter left to allow traffic to pass. ( the atrociously busy yamate doori in meguro-ku was a nightmare especially with evening rush).Are the requirements feasible or is this just wishful thinking. Still very much the gaijin with regards to tokyo and also its traffic situation though my passport says otherwise. Hope you are able to help me with this. All replies are greatly appreciated. Many Thanks!!!:)

Hope i posted this in the right category......
 
Why do people here cycle against the flow of traffic here???!!!:mad:
Because they're lazy? Don't want to wait to cross the road properly (to cycle in the correct direction)? Or they don't want to cycle behind slow-moving pedestrians? Or they haven't really thought about what could happen? And/or they've seen the cops doing it so it must be OK.

I have some sympathy with some of these excuses. Pedestrians especially have their gaze fixed on their phone screen and zero situational awareness.

When I encounter a contraflower, I will hug the kerb so they they're forced out further into the traffic. Heartless, perhaps, but unless they get a bit of a fright they're not going to stop it.

My school in the eastern part of the 23 special wards..
Arakawa or Edogawa should be perfect for you on the East Side. No cars. Lots of space. The only tricky bit might be getting from where you all are to the banks of the river.

--Mike--
 
Arakawa or Edogawa should be perfect for you on the East Side. No cars. Lots of space. The only tricky bit might be getting from where you all are to the banks of the river.

--Mike--

Thanks!! Will do a recce this weekend!:)
 
I rode BMX for many years, including a giant stint at a really rough skatepark, so I am used to slicing past people so close you can feel their clothes brush on yours...

My way of dealing with the 'mong-way' crowd is the following;

1. Set them in your sights.

2. Get in the drops.

3. Set eye contact on lock, full Muay-Thai style (I also did that for many years)

4. Snort back a load of phlegm. In the chamber, so to speak.

5. If, at this point, they see you, and give in, say thank you.

6. If they are on their phone, slide the mucus cartridge to critical point, especially if they are on their phone (the phone thing is REALLY becoming an issue now, right?)

7. As they approach, glide your position in, so you are not going for a head on, but are going to brush their clothes hyper-close. Any normal person with standard awareness will register the approaching unit in their frontal awareness vision. Again, if they register and move, let them go. Don't thank them, of course, but let them go.

8. If, like 99% of the time they continue, launch that phlegm as directly as you can, right in their stupid fucking faces, and drop the fucking shoulder as hard as you can into them, like you are swinging the most vicious Muay-Thai left hook you have ever done, but just with the shoulder.

9. In extreme cases, go past them, stop, turn round, catch them up in 3 cranks turns, stop them, and KERB STAMP their jaws off.

If we all do this, then eventually they will learn.

(They won't.)
 
guess its time to utilize my "death stare" at those people!!! muahahahaha!!:heyhey:
 
Kids here are, I believe, taught to walk against the flow of traffic when there's no sidewalk, as I was when a kid in the UK. Most mamachari riders think of themselves as assisted pedestrians rather than vehicles, so apply the same rule to themselves when they're on the bike, albeit incorrectly.

There are campaigns by cycling groups and the like to raise awareness and persuade all cyclists to go with the flow of traffic, Such campaigns may or not make an impact, but my bet is getting glared or yelled at by roadie foreigners almost definitely won't make a difference, however :)

Never bothered me much to be honest, but maybe that's because I'm out in the country? I worry more about cars cutting me off and trucks passing too close...
 
Such campaigns may or not make an impact, but my bet is getting glared or yelled at by roadie foreigners almost definitely won't make a difference, however :)

Never bothered me much to be honest, but maybe that's because I'm out in the country? I worry more about cars cutting me off and trucks passing too close...

Technically speaking not a Gaijin, but still a Gaijin. 3months only in Japan !!!!...
Well i would have had the same set of worries as you back home but here, head-on shoumenshoutotsu collisions with other cyclist at fast speeds. Cringe:eek:uch:
 
Well i would have had the same set of worries as you back home but here, head-on shoumenshoutotsu collisions with other cyclist at fast speeds. Cringe:eek:uch:

No, I'm in Japan. Out in the countryside, ie not Tokyo ;)
 
Must be a Tokyo thing...... but I find NOT riding in the curb and using the 1st 1/3rd of the road gives you plenty of space to deal with the "MONG" factor. Also coming out early (3 car lengths) to pass parked traffic again not cutting into the 1/3rd rule will give you plenty of visual.

I'm more than happy to shake it up in traffic and my sonic "Oi" weapon is enough to deter event the thickest mong.
 
Must be a Tokyo thing...... but I find NOT riding in the curb and using the 1st 1/3rd of the road gives you plenty of space to deal with the "MONG" factor. Also coming out early (3 car lengths) to pass parked traffic again not cutting into the 1/3rd rule will give you plenty of visual.

I'm more than happy to shake it up in traffic and my sonic "Oi" weapon is enough to deter event the thickest mong.

Usually that works, but last week a guy (male, 60`s?) came off the pavement (he was facing me) so figured he had done it to avoid the old woman on the pavement so moved into the middle of the road (no car coming) and figured he was going to go back on the pavement when he`d passed her and stopped looking over his shoulder. But as I got on top of him, he just pulled straight across the road in front of me so taught him some new English expressions. My fault of course for not realising he would pull across the road without even a glance at what was coming.

Once you get in the countryside, it is safe from the dreaded mama-chariot riders but I find you have to be careful with the cars, as my guess is drivers are so used to virtually no traffic that they no longer figure into the equation that there might be something coming round that blind hairpin they are taking on the wrong side of the road, as happened the other week.
 
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