hello world if you had asked me when I first visited Tokyo 24 years ago I would have told you that cycling in the city was great why it was like I was a kid again with a sense of Freedom it wasn't some sporty thing where I had to get from point A to B as fast as possible instead it was a leisurely ride through the neighborhood going wherever I wanted with no sense of danger fast forward to my move to Japan in 2013 and I would have definitely told you cycling in Tokyo was great so much so that I've never found the need to own a car sure the trains were fantastic before the short trips in my neighborhood bikes were the go-to but asked me a decade later in 2024 and I'm a little more conflicted one reason is this report by The Copenhagen eyes index that listed the most bicycle friendly cities technically the report is from 2019 but it's news to me they rated Tokyo as the 16th most bicycle friendly with a rating of 55.4% only slightly ahead of taipe at 54.5% and Vancouver and Montreal at 53.6% my initial gut reaction from the report was what by chance I had visited all four of these cities in 2023 and I felt my understanding of what makes a City Bicycle friendly was completely out of line with the scores being given the thing is I'm no expert on cycling or urban planning and perhaps there are aspects hair that I'm just not understanding so I want to use this video as a way to relook at my biking experience in Tokyo and I wanted to ask you especially if you've visited Tokyo and any of the three other cities what you think of the rankings is biking in Tokyo terrible or is it kind of great in the first part of this video I want to try and explain why I think cycling in Tokyo works well and in the second part I'll try and go through the Copenhagen eyes index and understand why Tokyo isn't rated so hot anymore I say anymore because it was ranked the fifth most bicycle friendly City in 201 11 okay so here are my reasons why I think cycling in Tokyo is great neighborhoods cover day-to-day needs with the average cycling trip in Tokyo being less than 2 and 1 12 km I think it's safe to say that most cyclists are biking around their local neighborhoods so using the bike to go to the grocery store convenience store restaurant doctor Library community center and basically all the day-to-day things they need to do Beyond going to work which is primarily done by train because everything is close by it makes biking the most efficient form of transportation and in fact the ministry for land infrastructure transport and tourism found that in Tokyo trips under 5 km are fastest by bicycle like if you wanted to go to the grocery store that's only 400 m away a/4 mile it's perhaps a 5minute walk but can easily be done in 2 minutes by bike you're not going to get there faster by car since the majority of the streets have a max speed of 30 km an hour but even the bigger Street streets with traffic lights aren't much faster with a speed of up to 40 km an hour and roads with four lanes and medians top out at 50 km an hour to get faster than that you generally have to get on a road that's separated from pedestrian and cyclist traffic which essentially means that it's an elevated or tunneled Highway which also means that slower pedestrian and cyclist traffic can easily cross underneath it or over top of it so most streets in Tokyo are 30 km an hour and on these shared Ed streets pedestrians and cyclists are the the majority and Motor Vehicles the minority while it's common courtesy to move to the side of the street when Motor Vehicles come you can tell that people are comfortable enough to use all parts of the street without worrying about being run over for the faster roads they usually have sidewalks that you're able to cycle on and traffic doesn't go significantly faster than the posted speed limits and that's an important note because we all know that a posted speed limit does not always equal the speed of vehicles due to the combination of the bigger roads being cyclable and easily crossable by bikes means that it's rare to find areas that are inaccessible to cyclists you're not getting the city bisected by a major highway that can't be easily crossed nor do you have as many big roads that don't feel safe to Traverse across the amount of bikes Crossing this four-lane road is very typical of many intersections across Tokyo no street parking the lack of on street parking is generally a big bonus to safety the chance of getting doored increases significantly although this doesn't mean that Vehicles won't Park temporarily whether it's couriers or people making brief stops so you can expect to have to weave in and out but it's generally less than what I experience in Canada where on street parking is mostly allowed in Japan I find that cyclists tend to take the path of least resistance so if there's a parked car or bus you might see them detour onto the sidewalk versus into the motor vehicle Lanes sidewalks are actually both for pedestrians and cyclists some will have shared use signs like this which completely allows cyclists and others will have dedicated bike only Lanes on the sidewalk that sometimes are physically separated but mostly are simply marked by a different color now do Japanese pedestrians follow the markings no it's generally a freeer and they walk wherever they like which really isn't too different from how cyclists act now some sidewalks have no signage indicating that bicycle use is allowed what's the law with these you'll find some Publications that say unless there is a sign that says otherwise it is usually prohibited to ride a bike on sidewalks but if you look into the actual rules set out by the police they state that children under 13 the elderly over 70 and the disabled can ride on them and they do with no fear of the popo stopping them however you'll assuredly see those aged 14 to 69 riding as well the rules in effect say that they're allowed to make a judgment call of whether it's safer to ride on the sidewalk or Street and choose the best option like it's safer to ride on the sidewalk when it's difficult to cycle on the road due to construction or parked vehicles or when there's a risk of collision with vehicles so in practice anyone can legitimately ride their bikes on the sidewalks and they do although cyclists always need to give priority to pedestrians and in crowded areas they should Dismount and walk their bikes of course this doesn't always happen but it's what's supposed to [Music] barriers between sidewalks and Roads listing barriers between sidewalks and roads may seem like an odd thing to include but it makes sense now that you know that sidewalks can be used by cyclists as well I'd never want my child riding along traffic that can go 40 or 50 km an hour but I had no problems if they were on the sidewalk with a barrier having the barriers in place means they're less likely to accidentally swerve off onto the road or that a motor vehicle could cross over and hit them and as you now know adults that feel in danger can also use the sidewalk that's protected by a [Music] barrier helmets are a suggestion there's a new law that came into effect in 2023 that requires cyclist to make an effort to wear them effort is the key word and as such they're not mandatory there is no punishment for not wearing them it's up to the individual to decide when and when not to use them not forcing people to wear helmet hel increases bicycle usage right now in Japan the helmet use rate among casualties and bicycle accidents is 13.5% before the law it was 9% you'll see that most cyclists with road bikes will use helmets and I've seen an increase in parents making their young children use them as well and according to the manager at the bicycle shop I recently visited seniors are also starting to wear helmets more for bicycle parking is everywhere nowadays most train stations will have parking spots that go for 100 yen for 24 hours I think this can be attributed to the huge problem there was decades ago of commuters illegally parking their bikes gy stores and malls will always have bicycle parking and they're generally in more convenient spots than what motor vehicles would get and all apartment buildings will have spaces for bike parking that's included in the rent if you want to park your motor vehicle you'll need to pay extra for that privilege now there are some areas where there are no specific bike parking spots and people have to randomly find places to park their bikes many times they'll technically be illegally parking their bike but as long as they're not blocking anything and the person is not parking longterm this is accepted for those that leave their bike illegally parked and generally it has to be at least overnight they'll get impounded and they'll will have to pay 3,000 to 5,000 yen to get their ride back in general I found that the time it takes to park my bike is only about 15 seconds more than when I simply walk in but at the most inconvenient I really can't say it's added more than a couple minutes to my trip theft is high but also [Music] not parking goes hand inhand with theft if you park your bike will it be there when you get back if you judge by the locks that are used to prevent theft I'd say yes the most common lock is this tiny wheel lock that prevents anyone from quickly getting on and riding off as you can imagine any real Thief could throw it into a k truck or quickly cut the lock if they wanted to if you look at the raw numbers bicycle theft is actually quite high in Tokyo there were 27,7 stolen in 2023 that's 194 bikes stolen per 100,000 residents but what you have to factor in is that there are 8 million bicycl in Tokyo a better way to think about it is the chance that any year your bike will be one of those stolen that's a 1 in 300 chance of your bike getting jacked although that's not true right it depends on where you live where you leave your bike whether you lock your bike because 60% of Stolen Bikes were unlocked and quite importantly what kind of bike you have if you have a more expensive bike then you'd be wise to put more security measures on it however the truth is that bikes are inexpensive you can easily pick up a city bike for under 20,000 yen and if you're feeling fancy you can double that budget which is what I did these inexpensive bikes are what people are riding around their neighborhood and are less likely to be stolen so people can feel comfortable quickly hopping on their bike picking something up from the store and going back home without big locks and the worry that their bike won't be there and you know what even though my bike's relatively inexpensive I quite enjoy riding it I think the volume of bicycle sales in Japan helps to keep the costs of bike low there are almost 6 million bikes sold in Japan each year in car terms I feel like my bike is a Toyota Corolla solid reliable car but nothing [Music] flashy bike ramps cyclists can use a lot of pedestrian facilities including pedestrian Bridges sometimes there are long ramps that you can ride up or down or that you're supposed to Dismount to Transit but no one does but in more constrained spaces you'll often see bicycle ramps on stairways or bikes can be pushed up or down there are so many stairs when traveling around Tokyo from small flights of only a few steps to large flights that go up 2 or three stories having this built-in accommodation for bikes really opens up where bikes can go elevated highways without getting into the argument of whether highways shouldn't go through cities there are many things which I appreciate about Tokyo's elevated highways because of their elevation and sound barriers this drastically cuts down on traffic noise it also allows bicycles and pedestrians to easily cross underneath but more so in some locations the area underneath is used for parks and multi-use trails if you have to have a highway this is much better than having it at [Music] grade why commute by bike now one huge criticism for bikes in Tokyo is that it's not an ideal form of Transport for most work mutes like you wouldn't want to cross the city riding one and I can agree with this cycling many kilometers across the city is not the fastest way to get to work you know what is trains Tokyo has an incredible network of trains and I think this is the biggest reason why Cross City infrastructure hasn't been developed further than it has I don't often meet people that commute by bike more than a few kilometers and when they hear that I've done some trip that would take me 10 km away they seem to be impressed I was always puzzled by this but if you think about the fastest way to get somewhere it makes complete sense a train ride is the fastest way to get from point A to B in Tokyo when traveling over 5 km so why take a bike when you can take a train reasons why Tokyo ranks the way it does now that I've laid out my reasoning for why I think Tokyo is a great City for biking here are the 13 factors that are consider considered in the Copenhagen eyes index bicycle infrastructure bicycle facilities traffic calming gender split motor share for bicycles motor share increase over the last 10 years indicators of safety image of the bicycle cargo bikes advocacy politics Bike Share and urban planning taking those factors into consideration here's where I'm guessing Tokyo has come up short lack of separated bike Lanes the truth is that there aren't a lot of truly separated bike Lanes around the city there are three main types of bike paths that I see the first are paths that I think would be considered AAA are close to it these are multi-use paths that you mainly find along Riverbanks they're very wide and have many toilets and water fountains along the way the second are paths designated by cheros which stand for shared Lane arrows cheros essentially they paint an image of a bike on a road and call it a bike path Tokyo loves loves these lanes and in most cases they're completely useless they don't stop vehicles from parking on them and offer no Extra Protection to the cyclist the last and actually kind of useful path is what I've mentioned before which are sidewalks which would probably be better labeled as multi-use paths whether they have dedicated sections doesn't matter as pedestrians will walk all over them but they're a safe way to travel by [Music] bike insurance policies prohibit bike commutes I read about how Japanese commuters are effectively banned from commuting to work on bicycle on Byron kids Tokyo bbike website which I'll Briefly summarize companies are required by the government to ensure their employees against workplace accidents which includes commuting to work but few insurance policies cover cycling which means most companies have policies forbidding their employees from biking to work however many companies have a don't ask don't tell policy in place and around 9% of commuters still commute by bicycle what workers do in this case is Park their bike away from the company and pretend they're not biking to work but I've also read about companies that do expressly allow their employees to commute to work via bike if they get bicycle liability insurance asking and searching around I couldn't get a solid answer because policies vary between companies and insurers so it seems a bit of a mess which is why many people find it difficult to commute to work by bike [Music] few traffic calming measures while it can be argued that the majority of streets are 30 km an hour and pedestrians and cyclists are prioritized in the rest of the roads with higher speeds there doesn't appear to be much done to slow down the speed of traffic lack of motal share increase on one hand the motal share for bikes for all trips in Tokyo at 14.1% in 2021 is quite High however the the number has been floating between 13 and 15% for years so there's not been a significant increase cargo bikes are rarely seen well I do see them used for couriers and delivery people but I rarely see individuals using them in fact I'd be quite surprised to see one parked somewhere although I should say that bikes that can carry two children are quite common but you'll rarely see a Dutch style cargo bike advocacy and politics this is where I think Tokyo Los es a lot of points cycling to work is prohibited at many companies and I don't believe there are serious efforts to build out bike infrastructure bike sharing programs are taking off actually this is where I think Tokyo would have gained points in recent years this has been improving in the past half decade with more and more options available it'd be nice to have a unified company managing everything like in Taipei but in Tokyo there are two major companies and once you register it is fairly easy to use the bikes urban planning higher scores are awarded for cities where planners think bike first I don't think this is happening in Tokyo which is probably losing it many points they do have a plan to increase the bike Network and have a target of nearly doubling the priority areas for bicycle traffic from 320 km in 2020 to 570 km in 2030 conclusion so to sum it up Tokyo gets ranked solo because Tokyo has no ambition this is clear to see if you use Copenhagen is's compared tool and that I can't argue with there could be way better policy and attention paid to improving cycling in the city but there isn't and despite that cycling around one's neighborhood in Tokyo is pretty great in my humble opinion what do you think thanks for watching see you next time peace what cycling like where you're from [Music]
