Cycling Japanese Style

My Brother has just returned from Japan where I asked him to photograph some of the Japanese cycling culture . Japan has a good cycling culture and some good cycling infrastructure.  He discribes it as thus:

It all looks very idealistic on the surface but it is a bit of a mixed bag.  There is a lot of general cycling but there are no helmet laws – it was great to ride casually without a helmet.  I did see some serious cyclists who road on the road and had helmets. 
 Elsewhere cyclists share with pedestrians on a narrow path with a barrier to the road.  The difference to Australia is that most people ride slowly and wear work clothes and it is not a race.  In suburban streets the speed limit is 40km on main streets and 30km on small streets therefore the streets are shared.

Osaka and around the 1960 expo site – the image looks great for cyclists but this section is only 15km long.

Osaka by Suita station – bikes are not allowed on trains and during the week you can’t park them anywhere you need to use the parking stations which vary in price and can be $5 a day or more

Outside a shopping centre in Osaka, in Yamada it is free is the first 2 hours then a lock goes across the wheels and you have to pay to unlock.  Note that no one steals bikes in Japan so you can leave them unlocked.

Himeji, I like this picture because the bike riders outnumber the pedestrians – the covered structure on the right hand side is an underground bike parking station.

 The last picture looks like a reverse as the pedestrians should be lined up against the zebra crossing and the
 bicyclists on th cycle lane.

In Canberra this seems to be a constant feature on traffic talk back on the local radio that at a zebra crossing the cyclist has to dismount and walk the bike across . The AFP and the RTA would argue that it is dangerous  for bicyclists to ride across a pedestrian crossing as car drivers wouldn't be able to react in time to stop and give way.The only danger is to pedestrians so the answer is to separate them so the cyclist doesn't have to dismount.

  

As would many of Mark Wagenbuur's video's would show. We do have some shared paths right of ways but we could certainly learn from Japan and the Netherlands on this issue.

Second class citizens.

One of my many 'bug bears' about how cyclists and pedestrians are treated in Canberra is works on replacing & relaying footpaths and cyclepaths. If a road was being relayed/resurfaced adequate signage and detour information would a minimum requirement. Some time ago on a major shared path that I featured here, during the construction of a driveway and replacement of part of the path. Pedestrians ,cyclists and the disabled were forced onto a small part of the road with vehicles speeds at 70km/h , and nothing but some small witches hats as a barrier for a bi-directional path. When I complained about the situation and suggested using at least one full lane of the dual carriageway  for pedestrians and cyclists, it was 'Oh that will slow up traffic and we can't have that'.

Just take a look at this pathetic solution here.

No solution but to use the 60 km/h road with not warning signs or detour signs.

.........and the solution used in the Netherlands.

Both are suburban streets ,but in the Netherlands ,part of the road is used for the cyclists and pedestrians to pass safely.
One would argue here, that because there are more cyclists in the Netherlands then using this type of solution is needed, but its all about respect. If you treat pedestrians and cyclists as second class citizens like here in Australia then why would people want to walk or cycle.

                           

Brisbane cycles on

We know that Brisbane and Queensland have been doing it tough lately. That may be an understatement! So I pulled a couple of photo's out among the many of media shots showing the city from the bike perspective.

Bikes parked along the river just before the peak

Brisbane CBD

Interestingly the Dutch  has offered technical expertise to Australia to help out in the devastating Queensland floods with Brisbane flooding problems since the dutch know what they are talking about, but the Prime Minister Julia Gillard has turned it down. Yet another bit of Dutch know how, we are not considering.

Merry Xmas

Bicycle music video interlude 5

With reports that the ACCC would issue fines of $1 million dollars!'WTF', to retailers who sell brakeless -gearless bikes known as fixies, lets have a cool music video featuring of course................ fixies!

          

Bowen Place Conundrum

The Cycle path (shared Path) around Lake Burley Griffin has been decribed as Australia best half day ride by Canberra's cycle lobby group Pedal Power. It has taken quite some time to finish all the missing links as there as two agencies responsible for different sections, the National Capital Authority and the ACT Government.
One section that is the National Capital Authority responsibility is Bowen Place in the Parliamentary Triangle and is a dangerous crossing of a four lane road

                             
View Larger Map

There are three options proposed by the NCA after consultation with  a working group which are.....

Footbridge

Ramp and stairs with traffic signals

Traffic signals only

The Bridge option is the most logical as it will not impede car traffic or pedestrian/cycle access to the Kings Ave bridge. Though as nothing is easy in the ACT , the National Trust and the Walter Burley Griffin Society raised heritage concerns about a footbridge as it would have a negative visual impact on 'Parliament House vista and views across and to the lake, and adverse impacts on the design geometry of the parliamentary vista and Kings Avenue Bridge'.
To view this negative impact you would have to take a helicopter view of the site or from the top of Mount Ainslie which is quite ridiculous. Ped / Cycle Bridges can have a sculptural affect and are used in many cities around the world.

Borneo Sporenberg, Amsterdam

Copenhagen, Denmark

Another option which was looked at early but not considered in the final three options was an underpass which would also be the most expensive. This doesn't seem to worry the dutch as infrastructure spending for cyclists and pedestrian has no known boundaries it would seem, is that why there are one of the healthiest and happiest nations?


                  

Barriers for Cycling

We have some ridiculous barriers for cycling in Canberra and I mean literally . Just imagine if we put these type of barriers on roads !

The above last two photo's are called 'motor vehicle restriction points' that reduce the pathway width to 1.4 metres at the midpoint of the rails on a 2.4 metre shared path, though  I would say that are also  cyclist restriction points.
These are quite dangerous for cyclist and I note that Bicycle Queensland recently had stated that these type of barriers are dangerous and had asked the Queensland Road and Transport department to have them removed. But as road traffic engineers who no nothing about adequate cycling infrastructure they obligingly refused.
In the Netherlands motor vehicle barriers look like this......

David Hembrow

They are also used to slow mopeds down while riding on the cycle paths. No chance of impaling yourself anywhere here. Infrastructure that is designed to be respectful of cyclists and not to enforce barriers to cycling.