In the news...

[jdd]

Pic and a short column about the rainbow bridge ride in the local paper, too.

 

[thomas]

Wearing a helmet will become mandatory for all cyclists in Japan from April 2023 onward, according to a recent Cabinet decision. The Japanese Cabinet on Dec. 20 approved a government ordinance to bring the revised Road Traffic Act into effect on April 1, 2023. All cyclists will from then on be obligated to try to follow the ordinance, though there will be no punishment for violations. Under the existing ordinance, guardians of children younger than 13 must try to have them wear a helmet when riding a bike, and the age range subjected to the rule will be expanded.

Helmets to become mandatory for all cyclists in Japan from April 2023 - The Mainichi

TOKYO -- Wearing a helmet will become mandatory for all cyclists in Japan from April 2023 onward, according to a recent Cabinet decision.

mainichi.jp

 

[adventurous cyclist]

Helmets to become mandatory for all cyclists in Japan from April 2023 - The Mainichi

TOKYO -- Wearing a helmet will become mandatory for all cyclists in Japan from April 2023 onward, according to a recent Cabinet decision.

mainichi.jp

I think that is good news. I live in a university town where 99% of the students ride a bike. It will be funny if the President of the university requires helmets. Going to look like a whole new helmet landscape. I usually "try" to wear my helment due to the insurance payout agreement. It pays more if you wear the helmet.

 

[OreoCookie]

This is good news. I'm in favor of making helmets mandatory in Japan. We don't have very good cycling infrastructure where I have lived, and hence, I think it'd be a net plus.

 

[Kangaeroo]

Not a fan of mandatory helmet laws. They were first introduced in my home state in Australia and the effect was stop large numbers of people from cycling. But I always use a helmet and have had a number of crashes where I was extremely grateful to do so. I would implore all cyclists to wear a helmet based on those experiences.
Having said that, I suspect this rule will be yet another that is strictly enforced until someone arbitrarily decides that it should be.

 

[Cactaur]

I’ve seen friends go down and the smashed helmets after. Wear a helmet.

 

[joewein]

In the 1960's Tokyo built the Metropolitan Expressway on top of its existing canals. In 2023 Amsterdam is doing the opposite and will be opening a huge underwater bicycle parking garage next to the Central Station this coming January 26.

I find it ingenious how they avoided digging under existing buildings, which tends to be expensive, to get this space in a premium location: They drained a local canal, built the site at the bottom (with escalator access for bikes) and let the water flood back. Truly thinking outside the box!

 

[Chuck]

Looks like a shake out of the bike industry is coming.

 

[microcord]

Yesterday, while walking through a Famima towards a small back room, was I experiencing Japanese-language incomprehension or an auditory hallucination, or did I actually hear a public service announcement encouraging people to use alternatives to cars, and thereby to free up roads for ambulances and the like?

If the third of these, it's far too sensible a notion to be palatable to the automotive-political-industrial complex, or so I'd have thought.

Anyway, I thereafter continued eastwards along Onekan, stretches of which were as usual chockablock with cars and trucks.

 

[BeerTengoku]

Not a fan of mandatory helmet laws. They were first introduced in my home state in Australia and the effect was stop large numbers of people from cycling. But I always use a helmet and have had a number of crashes where I was extremely grateful to do so. I would implore all cyclists to wear a helmet based on those experiences.
Having said that, I suspect this rule will be yet another that is strictly enforced until someone arbitrarily decides that it should be.

I'm all for helmets - but I am also for mandatory teaching of road laws and bicycle manners in conjunction. A helmet will help reduce injuries in an accident, but knowledge of how to act on the road can help reduce the chance of an accident.

Growing up in the UK, we had, as children, cycling classes at school and how to act on the road, e.g. gestures, rules of the road, manners etc. Then told about how to use and wear a helmet. Of all the accidents that I have had on bikes - and it hasn't actually been that many - only one has been a car accident due to the driver's fault.

 

[microcord]

"Pepper spray for the school run? The weaponised SUV set to terrify America's streets" (Guardian), advertised with the slogan "Vengeance [on cyclists?] is yours [the owner/drivers']", thanks to electrified doorhandles, etc.

(No, today is not 1 April, and the Guardian is not the Onion.)

 

[Elzico2012]

All cyclists will from then on be obligated to try to follow the ordinance, though there will be no punishment for violations

Ok, no punishment. Asking for cooperation.
I believe most will cooperate, but no guarantee like for riding with an umbrella, and the police will held some education, prevention campaigns in the main cities.
Otherwise, never wore an helmet outside of the road cycling habit, never had a crash since I was a kid, and those kid crashes were only a few bruises. Lucky maybe, but we never know what can happen, and every year here, a few do pass away after a bad hit on the head
As BeerTengoku mentioned, and I do not know it it is done here, teaching bike handling at schools is a good way to improve the safety.
As my city cross bike has been under maintenance for the last 4 years, ie has be completely rebuilt from the frame, only doing some road cycling will make me following the rules

 

[OreoCookie]

I think there are two issues here: one is partial enforcement, the other is the rule itself. Partial enforcement has always been a big gripe of mine, not just of rules pertaining to cyclists, but e. g. taxis essentially parking on the road (yes, I know that most of the time they have their hazard lights on, but that's pretty much just tatemae).

As BeerTengoku mentioned, and I do not know it it is done here, teaching bike handling at schools is a good way to improve the safety.

I was taught how to ride safely in primary school. We had special lessons with the police where we learnt to look over our shoulders for left turns, etc. (I was one of only four kids to fail … 😅😁) I don't know whether this is done in Japan. But they should.

Otherwise, never wore an helmet outside of the road cycling habit, never had a crash since I was a kid, and those kid crashes were only a few bruises. Lucky maybe, but we never know what can happen, and every year here, a few do pass away after a bad hit on the head

If you have a helmet, what's the harm of wearing it? IMHO the risk increases when you don't have proper cycling infrastructure, and we aren't as resilient as when we were kids.

My mother only started wearing a helmet after she got almost hit by a car backpack bag out of a driveway. She was lucky she somersaulted into a bush. I almost got doored several times in my life.

"Pepper spray for the school run? The weaponised SUV set to terrify America's streets" (Guardian), advertised with the slogan "Vengeance [on cyclists?] is yours [the owner/drivers']", thanks to electrified doorhandles, etc.

Wait a month, and they'll release an even bigger version. I'm still sometimes amazed when life is more absurd than what I'd expect from a movie.

 

[Elzico2012]

I was taught how to ride safely in primary school.

We did not have just lessons in France, only some traffic rules lessons where we were maybe taught orally how to safely ride a bike. I forgot. But no practical lesson for bike handling. This was considered as part of the parents responsibilities.
Now It seems that since 2022, measures have been implemented in France for each primary school to teach practically to the kids how to ride/handle a bike.

If you have a helmet, what's the harm of wearing it?

( Always an helmet on a road bike)
When it comes to city cycling, I mean just riding a bike around the house to go to the train station or combini, it has not been part of the education. and culture. Who does it here actually. Now, on a driveway full of traffic, to be honest, I do not know as it does not happen.

 

[OreoCookie]

I was taught how to ride safely in primary school.

We did not have just lessons in France, only some traffic rules lessons where we were maybe taught orally how to safely ride a bike. I forgot. But no practical lesson for bike handling. This was considered as part of the parents responsibilities.
Now It seems that since 2022, measures have been implemented in France for each primary school to teach practically to the kids how to ride/handle a bike.

We spent several days on a special course that belonged to the police in addition to theoretical lessons. So that's not something parents can replicate easily. Since education is organized by the states, and I assume each school also has freedom to implement its curriculum, I don't know how universal that was. But I thought it was pretty useful. I'm still thinking about it as an adult.

If you have a helmet, what's the harm of wearing it?

( Always an helmet on a road bike)

I honestly feel naked without a helmet on the bike. It's just like wearing a seat belt in the car, I simply got used to it and don't like the feeling of being without one.

With skiing it is similar: I learnt skiing just before the transition to helmets. Once helmets became optional it was a no brainer. Important difference: I like how ski helmets keep me warm on the slopes.

In the Netherlands, nobody who is commuting wears a helmet, though. Except me. So I get that in certain circumstances you don't need one. I might reconsider once we get the same type of cycling infrastructure that I have seen in the Netherlands.

 

[adventurous cyclist]

Testing one two okay I guess it works regards to bicycle prices at least here in Yamaguchi around the two universities the price of bicycles have not gone down although maybe the bicycles that are 2021 have been discounted but they're not going down at all mainly because of new students will be arriving for entrance of the universities also donkey hotel bicycles that used to be 11,800 yen they're $23,000 yen now .

 

[thomas]

Southern Japan aims to lure foreign cyclists through bike race

Organizers of the Tour de Kyushu 2023 are preparing to showcase Japan's southernmost main island as an attractive destination for global cycle tourism through the international multistage bicycle road race this autumn.

Top-level domestic and international bicycle racers are expected to participate in the race of more than 400 kilometers. It is planned to pass through such places as an area in Fukuoka prefecture that was seriously damaged by torrential rains a few years ago, the Kumamoto prefecture coal mining city of Omuta, designated as a World Heritage Site, and pass Mount Aso in Oita prefecture.

"The Tour de Kyushu will not be a mere international bicycle race because it is positioned as an event to create a sustainable future of Kyushu through public and private partnership," Sumio Kuratomi, chairman of the Kyushu Economic Federation and head of the Tour de Kyushu organizing committee, said at a gathering in the city of Fukuoka on Jan. 17 to introduce sponsors of the race.

"We will continue the event in and after 2024 and seek to run it eventually through all prefectures in Kyushu and Yamaguchi prefecture," which lies adjacent at the southern tip of Honshu, Kuratomi said.

Preparations are fully underway for the competition to be held from Oct. 6 to 9, with the first day set for an exhibition race in the Fukuoka prefecture city of Kitakyushu. The organizing committee expects 18 teams from Japan and abroad to participate.

The Tour de Kyushu is certified as an official Class 1 race by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), the Switzerland-based international governing body in the sport of bicycle racing. The certification allows the organizing committee to invite up to half of the top-level professional racing teams belonging to the UCI's World Team category.

The committee thus will seek to invite popular teams. "If I am allowed to use the analogy of baseball, World Teams are equivalent to Major League Baseball clubs. We will call on the world's best teams to participate," said Ryuzo Nakaya, event director of the committee.

The Kyushu Regional Strategy Conference, set up by the Kyushu Governors' Association, the Kyushu Economic Federation and other economic organizations in the Kyushu region, began deliberations in 2019 and decided to host the bicycle race in order to promote cycle tourism and symbolize the region's rehabilitation from torrential rain damage in recent years.

Paywall alert:

Southern Japan aims to lure foreign cyclists through bike race

Preparations fully underway for Tour de Kyushu in October

asia.nikkei.com

 

[baribari]

Southern Japan aims to lure foreign cyclists through bike race

Paywall alert:

Southern Japan aims to lure foreign cyclists through bike race

Preparations fully underway for Tour de Kyushu in October

asia.nikkei.com

Unexpected Mancebo

 

[kiwisimon]

Last big outdoor event I remember in October RWC2019

 

[kiwisimon]

Great news for those that devour cycling media

We've hit our target!

Dear readers, We’ve done it! We hit our funding target in only one week! I can’t thank each and every one of you enough for sharing the word, investing in us, and believing in us. I’m thrilled to be going on this adventure together and I couldn’t be more excited to see how it evolves throughout...

wadewallace.substack.com

Looking forward to it.