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Arakawa 20kph limit?

Here's one of the two copies I have received:

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I was handed that leaflet twice yesterday. They stopped each cyclist and asked us to reduce speed due to the number of bicycle-related accidents. They were gone today however. My average speed up and down Arakawa was 31km/h. :D
 
Not entirely surprising. I understand a lot of MUPs in North America have speed limits for bikes.
 
yeah good idea. I always trained on the Arakawa at about 5am so less users. I would get pissed off real quick if I had wankas buzzing past my kids at high speeds. Hard core dudes need to get on the road.
 
I have only been riding on the Arakawa, but I also tend to go when there aren't many people around. Which river around Tokyo is best for uninterrupted and unabated speed when the Arakawa is crowded?
 
Our club is very strict about courtesy and safety and we keep away from areas where there are lots of pedestrians or go slow if there are...but it doesn't stop us from going +40 or +50 when there is nobody around up the river near the farms.

I guess Edogawa will follow suit and copy this idea sooner or later. I wonder how they will (if they will) treat people who go over the limit. It looks more like a 'please ride less than 20kph' not a 'you must ride under 20kph).

When I rode with the half fast lot through Matsudo... I knew that it was dangerous as that is a very pedestrian loaded part of the river. They rode on the busier side too. When in popular busy areas you really have to slow down and be careful.

Our club splits up into smaller and smaller groups near busy areas. No more than 4 if we think there are too many people around and then 50m or more between groups.

Another thing that is very annoying. Some people have a policy of walking on the right hand side to see cyclists coming towards them so they can get out of the way. Other people have a policy of walking on the left and going with the flow. These two policies don't mix very well when you have cyclists and pedestrians all trying to use the same square meter of cycling path at the same time. :cry::cop::rescue:
 
Been waiting for this

The speed limit is posted on signs along the pathway, and on the road it's self in big letters. For a couple of years now and I have been wondering when they would seriously start to enforce this limit. I used to live very close and would ride the Arakawa every weekend. My tally of hits was one running high school kid who verded into my path with out warning and a brush with an oji-chan on a bike who did u-turn with out looking. Luckily I had slowed down both times, so no real damage was done. But I was riding with a mate once who hit a dog and went over his handle bars. Spectactular, but with little damage done. Not sure what happened to the dog though.

The other option for fast rides in Tokyo is to ride on Sundays at Oi futo, but the police have been patroling there again lately and forcing riders to stop at lights and to keep left when crossing the bridge. But they only show up around 09:00 and stay for an hour. Sort of silly really, they should be chasing real crims not riders.

I plan to ride the Arakawa early Saturday morning on a fast brick (ride/run) workout. There are no other places around here to do this sort of a work out. Hope that the Arakawa bike police are not early risers. :p

Keren
 
The Need for Speed

Yes, I was handed the same orange leaflet twice yesterday, too. But, I'd clued in by the second time and entered the barricade at a leisurely 15 + kph and a big smile.:D The leaflet got reverently stuffed into my left jersey pocket, and with an earnest, "Hai, hai, wakarimashita" and a firm nod, I was on my way.

And, yes, I can see their point entirely. The riverbanks are the Mecca for every clueless, daft, thoughtless, drunken or homeless ambler and rambler for the nearest 10 k. Although there's a massive blue line separating the tarmac into two clear lanes, I can count on at least one idiot cycling, running or walking a dog on the wrong side for every kilometer I ride. And when you smile and politely point them to the correct side of the tarmac, they either look at you as if you're from Mars (or Canada?):confused:, or they glare at you as if you'd violated their god-given inalienable human rights!:mad: So, from a safety point of view, riding any riverbank at speed is a bit like driving your car the wrong way down an express route. (Looks good in the movies, though.)

But, when the lane is clear, and I have clear sight-lines on both sides, I can't help opening up the throttle a little. For me, a comfortable hum into headwinds keeps the speed around 28-30 kph. But I've been passed by groups who must be pushing mid to upper thirties.

Given that I had my first major accident on the Tamagawa, I am in no position to rave too vehemently, but just where in this city can a cyclist really open up safely? I mean, where do the really fast ones ride if they're pushing 45 + kph (or more in a peleton)?
 
Interesting. I ride home on the Arakawa every night (around 10pm-1am or so), and even though I've blown past the police several times at full speed (including earlier this week), they've never made so much as a peep. Have to keep an eye out for them this Sunday.

Haven't hit anyone, but then I'm pretty careful to give pedestrians a wide berth or slow down when I can't, and always slow down around the baseball areas when the kids are playing. Other than that, though, I'm usually doing around 30.
 
One of the main rules of health and safety is that 'one must take reasonable care of your own health and safety and that of others who may be affected by what you do or not do.' Pedestrians putting themselves in danger are just as liable. Where are the leaflets aimed at educating the joggers, the pet walkers and their total disregard of safety of their pets on absurdly long leashes, the parents who don't keep an eye on their toddlers assuming the area is safe because it's away from motorised vehicles? The river police should also target irresponsible pedestrians.
 
Polymer Head said:
One of the main rules of health and safety is that 'one must take reasonable care of your own health and safety and that of others who may be affected by what you do or not do.' Pedestrians putting themselves in danger are just as liable. Where are the leaflets aimed at educating the joggers, the pet walkers and their total disregard of safety of their pets on absurdly long leashes, the parents who don't keep an eye on their toddlers assuming the area is safe because it's away from motorised vehicles? The river police should also target irresponsible pedestrians.
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the common sense rule on streets, roads, car racing circuits and ski slopes is it's the overtakers responsibility to ensure safety. all those other path users are not as liable as the person that hits them.
 
21kph doesn't make a ride a training ride either...

I don't disagree with the rules just saying that you can ride faster and safely at the same time. Our club has successfully done it for the last 5+ years without an accident. We keep away from areas where people walk a lot and head up river to where there are more cows. We have very strict rules and hand signals to make sure we know when we have to go very very slow to avoid causing people to be annoyed at us.

We value the river cycling path we use and we make our rides PR exercises as well. We wear our uniforms and are advertising. We therefore try not to upset anybody.

Dogs use cycling paths. If we see a dog we go very slow.
Children use cycling paths and are unpredictable especially with poor parent supervision. If we see kids we go slow.
Mama charis. We go slow.
Anybody walking, we go slow.

We also call out from 50m before these other recreationalists to make sure they know a group of cyclists are going to pass them.

We used to do a training ride down in Makuhari from 9pm on the road. We obeyed all the road rules. The speed limit on the road was 50kph. The cops would sometimes tell us not to ride there saying it was not a training ground.

The road was by a river and we looped over 2 bridges and down the other side of the river. Almost no pedestrians or cars.

You can't keep everybody happy.

Just ride safely.
 
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