biking in tokyo

I tried to write a post about politics, didn’t like it, rewrote it 4 more times, and then just gave up. So, in trying to keep up with an average of 1 post a day, I’ll switch topics while I figure out if/what I want to say. Prior to coming out to Japan, I swear I watched a bunch of youtube videos talking about how everyone in Tokyo bikes, it’s such a bike-friendly city, etc. Yes, biking is very popular and common, but my rose-tinted glasses are off now and I can confidently say - biking in Tokyo sucks.

I’ll start with the good first - cars. I don’t mean driving as a means of transportation is good, it’s actually quite bad and arguably far worse than biking, which is kind of the whole point. In urban areas, there are traffic lights every few dozen meters, slowing down traffic significantly. Outside of main roads, streets are so narrow that they are are only one car-width wide (but not actually one-way), and cars have to share lanes with pedestrians, bikers, and other cars/trucks parked on the side of the road. For short distances, this means that you might end up walking faster than a car. There are also very few spots to park, so people aren’t really driving themselves to go somewhere in Tokyo. Taxi, maybe occasionally, but it’s never the primary means of transportation. So what does that mean for bikers? Well 1) a lot fewer cars on the road given the population and density simply because it’s not an optimal form of transportation, and 2) the cars have to go slow (and are much smaller) by city design, which means you are much less likely to die upon impact if you were to get hit by a car. And since the cars are moving so much slower, that also means they have more time to respond and yield to you. Drivers also know to constantly look out for bikers and pedestrians on the street, and that conscientiousness genuinely affects the biking experience.

Two more minor things: bike parking is pretty great, there are so many bike parking lots that are very cheap and accessible, and it’s perfectly okay to leave your bike somewhere random, other than specifically-marked zones, but those don’t span more than just a storefront, so you can just park your bike a few meters down if needed. Severe bike theft is also not so much a thing - all bikes are registered with the police so if your bike does get stolen, it becomes very easy to track, which I’m sure disincentivizes the bike stealing even more than the baseline culture of not stealing things in general. A tiny lock is more than enough to deter thieves as well, people are certainly not coming out with cutters chopping locks unlike some places I know. Also, biking on sidewalks is legal and most people do it - this can be really nice if you don’t want to bike with cars or if you’re trying to maneuver your way around traffic safely.

Now onto the bad. Biking on the sidewalks is quite a painful experience. You’re fighting through pedestrian crowds (while also trying to be polite, there are a lot of bikers that are quite rude but I’m trying my best not to do that), dodging random obstacles and barriers, and dealing with much more bumpy/uneven terrain relative to the road. But on the road, there are virtually no protected bike lanes, sometimes there’s a feeble attempt at marking out a bike lane with some arrows on the left but cars don’t actually respect it, so I find myself often squeezing myself between the curb and cars to get by. So perhaps I don’t feel like I will imminently die biking through the streets of Japan, but I definitely don’t feel safe. On top of that, the roads are so confusing - as a person who is not good at directions, the chaotic streets of Tokyo are just not for me. Roads are not really named or labeled, they are basically never straight, and they are extremely tiny and intersect in the most chaotic ways. Other than biking in my local neighborhood that I am extensively familiar with (even then it can get a bit challenging because I’m stupid), it’s virtually impossible to navigate to anywhere new. I have an attachment on my bike for my phone so I can look at the GPS, but that only makes biking more dangerous.

There are virtually no stretches of uninterrupted protected bike routes. Along the rivers would in theory work out well, but for some reason the government decided to put “speed gates” at every single block so you have to slow down to a near complete stop in order to carefully maneuver around the gates. There are also many bridges over the rivers, which I get, but that means bad biking experience. I’ve tried so many different biking things in Tokyo - joining bike groups, going to popular training spots, etc., but there just simply isn’t a relaxing and effective exercise solution in the city.

So why do so many people bike? Most people just use it as a form of transportation. There are 3 tiers of distances within Tokyo: walking (self-explanatory, <1km radius), public transit (>5km radius), and this awkward in-between places where it takes both 30 minutes by foot and 30 minutes by transit, because it’s 10 to walk to the station, 10 to get to the next station, and 10 to walk from the station to your destination. Solution: 15-minute bike ride. These commuters don’t need to be going blazingly fast, they just need to beat every other form of transit, i.e. walking and public transit. So biking on the sidewalk, though slow for biking standards, is a completely acceptable solution. Vast majority of bikes in Tokyo are town bike-style, with a heavier, robust build, far cheaper and slower than a road bike. There’s the standard single commuter bike, and then the mamachari - basically the soccer mom van of Tokyo. Mamachari’s are equipped with a basket in the front for buying groceries, and a car (bike?) seat in the back for their child. I’ve seen mamacharis that can hold even more children, one in the front and one in the back. They are typically e-bikes since I imagine it’s pretty difficult carrying a 50-lb+ child on the back of your bike. Since driving is such a pain in the butt, this is certainly the fastest and easiest way to transport your children in the city.