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Ride and Drive like a fighter pilot

My motorcycle-riding friends from Germany were amazed how common helmets other than the full face type still are in Japan. Regulations must be quite lax here.

I've also seen quite a few people wearing a motorcycle or bicycle helmet like a hat, with the chin strap undone. Right, as if that's going to do you a lot of good when you get thrown off your motorbike or bicycle! [...] The helmet still protects from the threat of police writing you a ticket!
Yes this bugs me too, and I occasionally stop people to remind them.

The regulations themselves are reasonable, I think. All helmets sold for use on motorcycles must have a JIS class C mark. Without that mark it's not a motorcycle helmet - it's a hat. You must not wear a 'cap-' or 'semi-jet'-style helmet on a bike larger than 125 cc. A motorcycle helmet must have a fixed chin strap capable of keeping the helmet on the head for [blah blah impenetrable JIS testing detail].

In legal terms, if your chin strap isn't fastened, you're not wearing your helmet. And that's punishable by a fine and penalty points.

The problem, like so many here, is the lack of effective enforcement of the laws and rules. If the police stopped people for these minor infractions, instead of standing on street corners blowing their whistles in time with the traffic signals, people would get the message soon enough.

Effectively the only time these regulations come into play is after an accident, when the motorcyclist's brain is decorating the road. Too late.

I don't understand the system well enough to explain why the police cannot be bothered to educate road users more proactively.
 
That was a good read. I watched a National Geographic documentary about the same thing but it focussed more on how the brain deals with the information. The presenter said that when interviewed most drivers, after being in an accident with a cyclist, say they didn't even see them. It was explained that they are predisposed to only be looking out for cars not bikes or bicycles.

I can find links to various parts of it on YouTube but not the whole thing.

Here is a bit about multitasking

I think this was the beginning of it
My Japanese flatmate in Aus told me that roundabouts wouldnt work in Japan cause it requires judgement and decision making that aren't taught in schools. He cursed the amount of lights in Japan but they do take the above two factors out of the equation.

I had never thought of that as being a factor but that makes perfect sense.

When I was still driving more, my wife would often admonish me for stopping when coming up to a yellow traffic light about to turn red, "because other drivers are not expecting you to stop yet." Sure, it will be 2 seconds after my light turning red before the other guys' light will turn green, but I *am* supposed to stop!

Same about stopping for pedestrians at zebra crossings. The police don't enforce the law and bus drivers are just about the only drivers I see stop there.

This bugs me a lot, often.

Taxis even don't stop for you at zebra crossings when you have a baby-car with you (even though they see you and are far away). I threw my daughter's water bottle after one and they even don't care (he accelerated when I was about to cross and turned onto the opposite lane, passing me with ~70mph (30 allowed) .

I have been in the same situation, myself.
 
One of my biggest pet peeves is the way Japanese move in queues. They only watch for motion of the person directly in front. Therefore, if the space opens at the front of the queue - you actually have to wait for the accumulated (very slow) reaction of everyone in the queue to slinky back to you. In Europe, when drivers see the light change, EVERYONE initiates movement because they are WATCHING THE LIGHT not watching each other's behind. I see the same thing in riding with a group here. People watch the person in front and thus the group goes like a damn slinky instead of a unitized bunch! Combine this with friggin timed lights and you have massive throughput wasted and time lost at intersections. In the bike rides - it makes for a poor riding experience as you're constantly having to adjust speeds radically to stay together.

A pilot will scan the horizon , yet still be able to see what's happening on the panel. Try it yourself. Look across the room and tell me you can't see your hand waving at about 15 degree lower than your gaze. Once you train yourself to register and respond to critical view segments - like the gap between your front wheel and the one in front, or, in the case of a Pilot, gauge needle position on several critical functions like ToT, Oil Pressure, etc, then you can go into pan and scan mode easily. The far sight gives you more environmental input from which to plan response and the near sight gives you incremental warning and finite adjustment data. Do this, and we can dispense with all the silly hand waving, RSL and other motion that just detracts from the riding experience and actually puts the rider into a more dangerous position. Plus, you might just able to spot the Taxi door BEFORE it swings out into your path!
 
I see the same thing in riding with a group here. People watch the person in front and thus the group goes like a damn slinky instead of a unitized bunch! !

It's one of the reasons why in races here in Japan when someone crashes about 5-6 riders go down rather than 1 or 2.
 
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