Cycling Rule Crackdown - Good or Bad?

 It's been noted from various sources that the police have started cracking down on cycling violations in Tokyo due to an increase in the number of accidents.  

Mentions of this in Japanese media are largely met with the response of "good, it's about time", or similar, but in the English speaking social media sites the reaction is for some reason a bit more mixed.  

Primer:  If you want to know more about cycling rules in Japan, a good place to start is here.  

The basics are as follows:

1. Children need helmets, and if in child seats, seatbelts.

2. You are legally required to register your bike - though no license is needed.

3. You must ride on the left side of the road in most cases, and obey all stop signs, traffic lights, and other rules.  This means that "Rolling stops" are 100% illegal in Japan.

4. Brakes and lights must be fitted and lights must be used at night.

5. Most bikes are allowed to traverse most one way roads the "Wrong way".  It is not allowd to go the wrong way on a two way road.

6. Like mopeds, right turns must be made in two steps.  (Dross the street, then cross again).

7. Most bikes are allowed to ride on bike trails and mixed use trails.

8. Riding on the sidewalk is not allowed, except as an exception, when the road is deemed unsafe.  (This is a big loophole, but we will come back to it later).  

a. When riding on the sidewalk as an exception, you should keep your speed "low", though I have never seen a number published.  

b. When  riding on the sidewalk, bikes must yield to pedestrians at all times, and should not ring their bell to clear people out of the way, etc.  

9. Like cars and honking, ringing your bell is only allowed as a safety measure in dangerous situations.  (It is prohibited to, for example, ring your bell to tell people to move out of the way).

10.  Bikes are not allowed to ride next to each other (except for passing).

11. Two (or more) people to a single bike is not allowed.  

There are plenty of more detailed rules - for example covering how you should cross the street if you were riding on the sidewalk vs. the road, and at different types of intersections, etc., but in most cases, common sense applies.  

There are also some cases in which the "proper" thing to do isn't clear, so there are many unwritten rules, or places where common practice might reasonably diverge with the actual rules.  Some examples:

a. There is a white line at each four way intersection at which all vehicles must stop.  Often bikes will go in front of this line instead of behind it.  I assume this isn't technically legal, but it makes sense, because when the light changes, the bike can then cross the intersection without worrying about the car behind them that wanted to turn left.  

b.  At a Y shaped intersection where the cyclist wants to take the right fork, but riding in the left lane will result in taking the left fork, it is necessary to briefly ride in the second lane from the left.  

There are aactually various sites in Japanese talking about the technical legality of all of these various things, but they are mainly academic, since the average person doesn't read them, and the police aren't out to get everyone.  

Two more notes:

1. For bikes with electric motors, only bikes that fall certain conditions can be counted as bicycles, anything else is a moped or motorcycle, and will require license, license plate, glasses, insurance, helmet, etc. - and thus must follow all normal traffic laws and not eligible for any of the exceptions that cyclists receive.  "Kickboards", etc., also do not fall within these rules, so they are motor vehicles.  

2. Within the category of "bicycles" exists "Normal bicycles", which are just bicycles that fall within certain size constraints.  So, for example, the bike must fit within 190cm x 60cm to be considered a "normal bike".  There are some other conditions, like it can only be a single rider bike, and must have brakes, etc - but the point is that a "normal" bike excludes some bikes like enclosed bikes and large mountain bikes.  This doesn't mean such bikes aren't allowed, it just means they aren't considered "Normal" bikes, and don't get some of the exceptions that normal bikes get - for example, they aren't allowed to ride on the sidewalk or mixed use trails.  

The situation up until now

Before we discuss the crackdown, let's look at the situation up until now:

Bicyclists are most often stopped for the following reasons:

a. Running stop signs / lights

b. Operating without lights at night

c. Riding with two people on a single bike

d. Checking registration

e. Riding no brakes

f. Drunk riding

g. Illegal ebikes

Let's separate out the last item.  If you are riding a bike uphill without pedaling, then clearly your ebike is throttle controlled, and this is not a bike at all according to Japanese regulations.  Therefore you are operating an unregistered, uninsured motor vehicle.  This is a big crime and can lead to arrest, big fines, and jail time.  If you want an eBike beyond what the law allows, you can get it - but then it will have to comply with the rules for a moped, and be registered as one.  At any rate, that is not a cycling related offense, so we will leave it at that.  

I have been stopped for A, B, and D above.  In each case the stop was short, and the police were professional.  In each case, they also left me with a warning.  

How to I feel about that?

Well, for the stop sign, I wish they did fine me - because I want them to fine everyone, because I see people run stop signs all the time, and it is absolutely dangerous.  (and yes, people die from it with regularity).  Just for the record, my specific case was that I crossed an intersetion while the light was green, changed my mind, made a U turn, and turned around, by which time it was red.  

The riding without lights can also absolutely be dangerous - but in many areas of Tokyo is is bright enough at night.  More to the point, for some people on non-eBikes, their battery may have run out.  I would suggest a point system here.  If you don't have your light on because you didn't bring it (because you thought you would be back before dark), or because you didn't know your battery would be dead - perhaps that doesn't deserve a fine.  But if this happens every week, then clearly you aren't concerned with the safety of yourself or others.  Also, it isn't actually that hard to have a $5 backup light with you.  

With regards to the brightness outside, I suppose it's easier to enforce a rule that says "always use lights after dark", then it is to make it subjective by saying "Use lights when necessary".  To that end, however, why not just set a time of day?  Me, I use lights even in the daytime.  

My specific case involved the police stopping me for riding without a light in the early evening, but it was very bright where I was riding (I was riding along the train tracks where it was very well lit) - so I didn't notice that my lights were off.  I took out my light, attached it to the bike, turned it on, and they were happy and let me go.  

Finally, there are registration stops - This is mainly just to make sure the bike you are riding is not stolen.  I have only had this happen twice, though some people claim it happens to them on a weekly basis.  Asll I can say is they must look suspicious!  If your registration checks out, then they let you go immediately.  Right now the law is that you must be registered, but there is no particular penalty for not registering.  I think that this should probably be turned into a point system or something similar to ensure people register eventually.  

The point is, (aside frm riding an unregistered motor vehicle) if whatever you have done hasn't actually caused an accident, the police until now would almost always let everyone go with a warning.  

So... what is this crackdown?

Well, it used to be that riding bicycles on the sidewalk was completely forbidden.  As the number of serious accidents increased, the law was changed to allow for sidewalk riding.  I can see that when you are talking about a mamachari with a todler on the back and a bunch of groceries in the front coming back from the supermarket where there is a crowded high speed road in front - perhaps you want to let the housewife take the sidewalk instead.  She's not likely to be going at extreme speeds anyway.  

Likewise when grandpa is riding from the house to the station at a slow pace, it might make sense to allow him to take the sidewalk if the road is high speed and crowded with parked cars in the left lane where the bicycles are supposed to ride (a common practical issue).

Since the law was changed, however, predictably the number of serious accidents between cars and bicycles has fallen while the number of serious accidents between bicycles and pedestrians has increased.  

There were a few famous cases where people crashed into elderly pedestrians causing serious injury or death, resulting in large fines.  

It's easy to understand why there has been an outcry from this, and the police have decided to take more action in response.  

The police have been very clear that they are looking to crack down on things that are likely to cause serious accidents (as opposed to prosecuting on technicalities) - so I think the concern from some over being targeted by malicious police with ticket quotas is unfounded.  

The specific examples stated were:

a. High speed sidewalk riding

b.Purposely ignoring traffic signals 

These would result in "red tickets" and/or prosecution.  

Thinking about this from a personally selfish point of view, of course I would rather not be fined even if I accidentally broke the rules - but when considering the wider perspective, curbing dangerous behavior is exactly the correct thing to do.

When riding in the city at least, I find the most dangerous situations to be caused by other cyclists, followed by pedestrians, with cars coming in last place.  Cars can't generally go very fast in the city, are aware of and respectful to cyclists in general, and don't typically run red lights.  Cars also don't cross the street at random places or ride the wrong way down the road with no lights.  

You can only be so safe even when following the rules if other people break them - so actually enforcing them seems like a good idea to me.