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Uenohara Caution

Mike

Maximum Pace
Sep 24, 2007
1,066
9
Not sure if anyone else has experienced this, but I've noticed the drivers in Uenohara are appalling. Every time I ride through this place I almost get hit by at least 2 cars, no joke:(

Today after coming down from Uenohara Country Club I was passing through with EXTREME caution as I have learned to do and an old lady pulled in front of me as she made a right turn. Fortunately I saw it coming and was able to slow down in time and give her a lashing of my best Japanese. She bowed in apology...whatever!

Next, another old bird came past, braked and instantly took a left cutting me off and forcing me to brake hard. More verbal abuse from me but it was probably in vain as she was most likely as deaf as she was blind:mad:

Sorry, but just wondering if this has happened to anyone else in Uenohara after coming off Tsuru toge or Uenohara CC? I think this place must have a lot of retirement homes and pensioners.....

Take care out there, it seems to be the silly season. So many wanna be racer motorbikes, knob jockeys and old folk who shouldn't be on the road at all:cool:
 
Not sure if anyone else has experienced this, but I've noticed the drivers in Uenohara are appalling. Every time I ride through this place I almost get hit by at least 2 cars, no joke:(

Today after coming down from Uenohara Country Club I was passing through with EXTREME caution as I have learned to do and an old lady pulled in front of me as she made a right turn. Fortunately I saw it coming and was able to slow down in time and give her a lashing of my best Japanese. She bowed in apology...whatever!

Next, another old bird came past, braked and instantly took a left cutting me off and forcing me to brake hard. More verbal abuse from me but it was probably in vain as she was most likely as deaf as she was blind:mad:

Sorry, but just wondering if this has happened to anyone else in Uenohara after coming off Tsuru toge or Uenohara CC? I think this place must have a lot of retirement homes and pensioners.....

Take care out there, it seems to be the silly season. So many wanna be racer motorbikes, knob jockeys and old folk who shouldn't be on the road at all:cool:

Don't forget those wannabe road racer types who do not stop for red lights, I got clipped by one of them just today I was crossing the road with the trailer full of beer, had just started across and this "I'm too cool to stop for red lights" dude on his wanker CF racing bike :rolleyes: blew through the intersection, and clipped my front wheel, he almost crashed and I had to unclip in a hurry and get a foot down, and then my trailer full of beer pushed me over. :mad:

My point? I think there are asshats out there of every possible kind, you have to watch your arse constantly, good on you for giving the jerk off cage drivers a piece of your mind, and better on you for having the brains to keep you eyes peeled!:cool:
 
Out in the country it's mainly older people. Their generation has clue about the bicycle other than as mama chari or keirin. So, they just react on the main road
Like you are mamachari with top speed of 10kph. And you should be watching them, not vice versa as you should be on sidewalk, not the car road. That's my take anyway. Can't fault them anymore than a 4yo not watching as they cross the street. Humour the aged and 'special' in this case applies to almost every driver in Japan.
 
Don't forget those wannabe road racer types who do not stop for red lights, I got clipped by one of them just today I was crossing the road with the trailer full of beer, had just started across and this "I'm too cool to stop for red lights" dude on his wanker CF racing bike :rolleyes: blew through the intersection, and clipped my front wheel, he almost crashed and I had to unclip in a hurry and get a foot down, and then my trailer full of beer pushed me over. :mad:

My point? I think there are asshats out there of every possible kind, you have to watch your arse constantly, good on you for giving the jerk off cage drivers a piece of your mind, and better on you for having the brains to keep you eyes peeled!:cool:

Did you call the police? He jumpeed a red and caused a collision resulting in a crash.
 
Did you call the police? He jumpeed a red and caused a collision resulting in a crash.

Yeah, you are a funny guy, the asshat had already sprinted away and the cop, yeah, right, they are going to come and investigate that..... :rolleyes:

Sure technically speaking you are correct, I live in the real world with real world demands on my time etc, I'm just happy no beer etc was damaged in the crash.

It is so cool to run red lights because you are so fast and ride an expensive bike..... not.... :D
 
Fit all cyclists with implanted 'trackers' - or, until then, very large, easy to read LICENSE PLATES! Oh , wait, that's what the Tokyo Metro wants to do anyway ...
But yeah - alot of cyclists fudge pretty hard on the lights. (Me , too now and then). But now, I'm pretty down with playing the straight-edge as much as possible role. And I know FE does as well.

Alleycatting just doesn't cut it in T town - or anywhere you want some reverse repsect on the road.

But , yeah, the Taxi's and Flatbed Lorrie-Bozuoko- Bozos are the worst. Karma works in strange ways though - did you guys see the flipped taxi on the 17 last Sat? Precious, huh? Looks like the blighter was doing a standard 'Swoop to scoop' manouver and lost control of the Big Crown to promptly smack a pole!

Did you call the police? He jumpeed a red and caused a collision resulting in a crash.
 
I don't have a lot of moral authority with regards to speaking about traffic laws as when I'm in city traffic I tend to mix it up and run red lights like I'm getting paid to do so (I'm trying to cut down), but when I roll through towns out in the sticks I tend to back the intercourse off. drivers out in towns like uenohara or otsuki tend to be elderly and not used to driving with aggressive cyclists. In this case "aggressive" doesn't necessarily mean rude or dangerous but cyclists who expect to be view as equals with cars on the road.

In my experience country drivers in the kanto area are some of the most cycle friendly country and passive drivers in the world, but they're still not going to see you and cut you off or do other dangerous things to bikes. I'd still take the slow moving non-looking elderly folks in uenohara over the beer bottle/can throwing hoosiers actively trying to run cyclists off the road with their pickup trucks that you'd find in my home state.

what I do when i get close to a town center out in the hills is slow down and assume that none of the cars will see me or give me the right-of-way. it means that i'm not able to make good time when going through a town, but i have yet to have any really close calls. I've been cut off or had cars stop suddenly right in front of my but I've always been going slow enough that it's never been a problem.

not to say that you're not right about the bad driving, I just find that i enjoy my rides through the smaller town centers a lot more when i slow down and let the country drivers do what they're going to do.
 
I'll take the hoosiers over the gang bangers any day. Having a 9 pulled on you is no fun. That being said, while I have had beer cans, sticks, cigarettes and all sorts of crap tossed at me while riding <in other countries> , plus the aforesaid mentioned '9'. Japan is very tame. And I think it's this very thing that lets , we cyclists, take a more aggressive stance. Man, you'd just never shoutdown a motorist in LA, for example... or Greece..

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/01/cyclist-sentenced.html -=> and these are supposed to be the GOOD GUYS!

Slightly off / on topic. We were talking to the TOITO organizers and wondering why they moved the start away from Takao. Well, it turns out that the Japan Truckers Association had a hand in this. Apparently they complained alot (and do) to the Police regarding cyclists disrupting the flow of traffic on the 20 and 'acting foolishly'. TOITO folks had no choice but to push further west until they got into precincts where the Truckers weren't complaining as much.

So - there's another aspect to all this - the Truckers have a much bigger lobby and voice than the cyclists. Cyclists need to lobby more and more - just like they do / did in other countries and cities to have more legitimate recognition and awareness as a proper 'vehicle' .
 
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