Motorcyclists Being Hounded From Big Cities

[Mulboyne]

[floatl][/floatl]Asahi: Crackdown leaves motorcyclists in limbo
The convenience of commuting by motorcycle may be at an end. Many motorcyclists in urban areas are having to resort to new means of transport following a crackdown on parking offenses and inadequate parking facilities. Due to the introduction of private-sector parking wardens in 2006, the number of motorcyclists fined for parking offenses in 2007 increased fivefold from 2005 numbers, a recent survey showed. The wardens' regular patrols of busy urban areas mean that maintaining a motorcycle is more costly than ever. That, in turn, has alarmed manufacturers who are witnessing plunging sales. In 2007, there were 521,000 cases of illegally parked motorcycles, a sharp increase from 110,000 in 2005, the National Police Agency said. Cases were primarily concentrated in urban areas, with nearly half them, or 251,000, in Tokyo [see left]... In 28 prefectures, mostly rural areas of the Tohoku, Hokuriku, Chugoku and Shikoku regions, only up to six cases were reported. According to agency officials, the disparity in cases among prefectures is mainly due to the stronger support and demands for a parking crackdown among residents in urban areas...In a bid to alleviate the plight of motorcyclists, the Tokyo metropolitan government will set up a discussion panel...more...

[canman]

Get off those damn bikes and back into cars. Using more gas and polluting the earth, and creating more green house gases. That is exactly what Japanese big cities need more of.

[FG Lurker]

Get off those damn bikes and back into cars. Using more gas and polluting the earth, and creating more green house gases. That is exactly what Japanese big cities need more of.

Motorbikes are a plague on the roads of major cities here. There must be a rule somewhere that says "before putting on your helmet, be sure to remove your brain." The smaller the bike (scooters being the worst) the stricter the rule.

[gkanai]

It is getting harder and harder to own/ride a motorcycle in Tokyo. The parking situation is definitely more strict. I'm willing to pay for parking but there isn't enough. The other weekend I went to Shibuya and tried to find motorcycle parking but it was all full.

[Behan]

Most of the pay parking lots out in Chiba don't allow motorcycles in either.

[Sensei]

Motorbikes are a plague on the roads of major cities here.

Substitute "motorbikes" with "taxis" and you're a bit more on target. I have seen many motorbike accidents, and most of them just happen to involve taxis, which hog both lanes of roads, make sudden lane changes without signaling, and suddenly pull over without looking at who they might be running over. Truckers are not far behind. Both do crazy stuff all the time, but the police let them get away with it, probably because their jobs depend on their driving records.

Motorcycles always have gotten the crappy end of the stick in Japan. They are specifically targeted by traffic cops for tickets; true, they violate the law more, but not nearly in proportion to how they are cited. I once saw a large truck dangerously pop over a yellow line among other traffic, right in front of a cop on lookout for a ticket trap; the cop didn't blink. A minute later, a biker crossed the same line with almost no one else around, and was pulled over.

This ticketing initiative is simply an extension of that BS. Bicycles are ten times the scourge that motorbikes are in terms of clogging walkways, but bikes still are relatively let alone, else given hours if not days of warning before anything is done; I would not worry about parking a bicycle unless it was within sight of a station, but that was true long before this ticketing initiative--the bike-oyaji have traditionally swept near-station areas. With this new initiative, however, you can't park your motorbike anywhere without hazarding an expensive ticket at virtually any time. Even on back streets. Safer to park your scooter on someone else's private property--they'll take way longer to respond, letting you get your shopping done and getting out of there.

Truth is, most ticketing is done where congestion is not a problem--mostly on roads where the sidewalk is amply wide to house parked bikes and not interfere with foot traffic, and almost always amongst a horde of parked bicycles, whose owners know full well they can park with impunity. This is not about relieving congestion or punishing bad driving; it is purely about raising revenue from a cash cow, which society accepts because the group as a whole is commonly looked down upon and disproportionately dismissed as deserving it.

[FG Lurker]

I have driven daily in Osaka for the past 5 years, I do about 18,000km/year right now. For 9 years before that I rode a mountain bike daily, up to 200km/week at peak times. I know the roads here well.

Cyclists (the human powered kind) are probably the worst. The fact that they are allowed to ride the wrong way on one-way streets is a horrific legal oversight IMO. (Generally this is not allowed on main thoroughfares but on any other one-way street bikes are legally allowed to ride whatever way they please.)

Next are definitely scooters followed closely by small cc bikes. Larger cc riders tend to have more brains, or perhaps more respect for their machines. Lane splitting while weaving in and out of cars is pretty much a sport for the smaller bikes and it wreaks havoc with everyone else on the road. Just having to watch out for these fuckers is a major distraction to everyone else around. In a perfect world cars would be issued with vaporizers that could be used at will on riders of such bikes. ZAP. I no longer make way for smaller bikes at all cause they piss me off to no end. Fuck em.

Ancient taxi drivers that can barely see over their dashes are the worst of the rest though, I agree. They are only half watching the road -- the other half of their attention is scanning for anyone who might remotely look interested in getting in a taxi. Deregulation of the taxi industry has lead to far too many taxis on the road which has lead to intense competition and taxis doing insane shit (crossing multiple lanes etc) to pick up customers. I don't like regulation but if things get to this point perhaps the current situation needs to be reconsidered.

Truck drivers can be bad, especially if they have been up all night and are strung out on speed. It's not such an issue though, everyone with half a brain gives them a reasonably wide berth to begin with. Plus they are generally out there working, not just running down to Lawson to buy smokes on a scooter.

[quote="Sensei"]This is not about relieving congestion or punishing bad driving]
I don't like those green uniformed fuckers any more than the next guy. The fact is though that the streets are pretty much free of illegally parked trucks/cars/bikes now and that is a definite improvement. It is also nice to actually be able to find street parking now as people have to pay for it.

[maraboutslim]

My own personal opinion is that the less polluting a vehicle is, the more right I'd like to give them to use the public's roadways. This means pedestrians first, skateboarders/cyclists next, then scooters and motorcycles, then cars, then trucks. (and no, i don't care that those trucks deliver my goods: they can do that shit at night for all i care).

[FG Lurker]

My own personal opinion is that the less polluting a vehicle is, the more right I'd like to give them to use the public's roadways. This means pedestrians first, skateboarders/cyclists next, then scooters and motorcycles, then cars, then trucks. (and no, i don't care that those trucks deliver my goods: they can do that shit at night for all i care).

Many scooters are 2-stroke and do considerably more damage to the environment than much larger 4 stroke engines do. It is not just the amount of fuel consumed that matters.

I'm curious, how would goods being delivered by truck at night be better for the environment than being delivered by truck during the day?

I'm also wondering how a pedestrian is less polluting than a cyclist or skateboarder. What, do pedestrians fart less or something?

[Catoneinutica]

I'm also wondering how a pedestrian is less polluting than a cyclist or skateboarder. What, do pedestrians fart less or something?

Heh. He might've been factoring in safety considerations, and I gotta say the number of bicycle riders doing text-messaging and listening to headphones while cycling is pretty damn scary - their visual and auditory senses are partly off-line, and I doubt they're compensating with their olfactory sense (well, unless the pong of one's B.O. or cigs alerts them to one's presence).

If you're a pedestrian and they hit you, you lose, and if you're a driver and you hit them, you really lose.

[Behan]

(Excuse me for just repeating what FG Lurker and Catoneinutica have already said...)

I'm all for people cycling more and driving less, but they got to get some common sense and manners first. A lot of bicyclists ignore traffic rules, ride on both sides of the road, write text while cycling, etc. Then there are the kamikaze riders on the sidewalks.

[Sensei]

Cyclists (the human powered kind) are probably the worst. The fact that they are allowed to ride the wrong way on one-way streets is a horrific legal oversight IMO.

Bleh. While I hate those guys--slow-moving people who know they will be considered faultless in an accident, taking up lanes of traffic and ignoring all traffic laws--I must admit I have never seen an accident even almost happen due to them. Don't know why not, I just haven't.

I don't like those green uniformed fuckers any more than the next guy. The fact is though that the streets are pretty much free of illegally parked trucks/cars/bikes now and that is a definite improvement. It is also nice to actually be able to find street parking now as people have to pay for it.

By "bikes," you don't mean "bicycles," right? Because as far as I have observed, bicycles--which were the worst problem originally--are just as much a problem now as they were before. They still clog the sidewalks no less and no more than before, probably because, as I noted, they aren't hauled away without warning, except right in front of stations--and even then, they usually are given time. Every street I walk on still has the things cluttering up the way, and the parking police simply walk past them as they look for motorized vehicles they can make money off of. Nothing has improved; you simply don't see as many motorbikes among the more-numerous bicycles, is all.

As for cars, maybe there aren't as many illegally parked, but that never bothered me as a pedestrian or as a driver. I don't notice either way.

As for trucks: are you kidding? They're just as much a problem as ever. They seem to figure that the left lane of traffic is their personal nation-wide free parking lot. You can't go very far down any major two-lane thoroughfare without having to merge to the right to avoid them.

From my perspective, there has been no notable beneficial change for pedestrians or drivers, just a whole lot more ticketing--making driving in Tokyo even less appealing than ever. Which was maybe the point, secondary to milking that cash cow.

[maraboutslim]

Many scooters are 2-stroke and do considerably more damage to the environment than much larger 4 stroke engines do. It is not just the amount of fuel consumed that matters.

A 2-stroke 50cc scooter is still less polluting than a car though, no? And it uses so much less gas and that means less carbon emissions. It is mainly about the amount of fuel consumed (both in production of the vehicle and in its continued use).

I'm curious, how would goods being delivered by truck at night be better for the environment than being delivered by truck during the day?

They wouldn't. I'm just saying that i don't want them on the roads in the daytime because they are annoying and dangerous, even though they are bringing me my goods. I'd prefer they move about at night when the rest of us aren't on the roads.

I'm also wondering how a pedestrian is less polluting than a cyclist or skateboarder. What, do pedestrians fart less or something?

Because the production of the bicycle or skateboard consumed energy and created pollution. I suspect there is a point, however, where the energy saved by the human by using these more efficient forms of transportation (i.e. we burn fewer calories skating than walking the same distance) would produce a net savings on the environment - assuming that the human actually ate less when he was burning fewer calories instead of eating the same and getting fat. I haven't gained any weight in the last 22 years but this can't be said for most people...

[Bucky]

Can't they just compare the parking tickets to the rental agreements and bill the renter's credit card?

Japanese rental car firms deal with parking fines

Rental car firms in Japan frequently find themselves having to deal with the burden of parking fines, with media sources noting that collectively, these companies have had to pay out tens of millions of yens since last November. A new system was introduced in the past two years, which now holds the registered owner of a given car responsible when the driver of the vehicle parks illegally. As such, rental firms in Japan must foot the bill, when car hire clients violate parking rules.

The All Japan Rent-A-Car Association recently conducted a survey, with the participation of nearly 3,300 member car rental companies. The study found that together, these firms had been fined at least 4,900 times thus far. Since this problem is becoming increasingly cumbersome for car hire firms, many have decided to pass on the cost of fines to consumers. As such, some companies now bill their clients a sum equivalent to the amount that they have been charged, in order to cover the cost of these fines. Under the current parking regime, whenever a renter is given a parking ticket, the car hire firm is automatically notified by local police. In the past, the normal course of action would have simply been that the client would have had to pay for the full amount of the fine, once they dropped off their vehicle, at the end of the rental period.

Nippon Rent A Car, one of the largest car hire firms in Japan, noticed a dramatic increase in the number of parking fines that it received in recent months. While Nippon would end up paying, on average, 60 fines per month, this grew by nearly 20 instances each month, since the beginning of the year.

http://news.carrentals.co.uk/japanese-rental-car-firms-deal-with-parking-fines-3422203.html

[Tsuru]

A 2-stroke 50cc scooter is still less polluting than a car though, no? And it uses so much less gas and that means less carbon emissions. It is mainly about the amount of fuel consumed (both in production of the vehicle and in its continued use).



They wouldn't. I'm just saying that i don't want them on the roads in the daytime because they are annoying and dangerous, even though they are bringing me my goods. I'd prefer they move about at night when the rest of us aren't on the roads.



Because the production of the bicycle or skateboard consumed energy and created pollution. I suspect there is a point, however, where the energy saved by the human by using these more efficient forms of transportation (i.e. we burn fewer calories skating than walking the same distance) would produce a net savings on the environment - assuming that the human actually ate less when he was burning fewer calories instead of eating the same and getting fat. I haven't gained any weight in the last 22 years but this can't be said for most people...

We got the noisy little bastards in Europe too (50cc scooters) and a recent survey concluded that most of them shoot more dust, soot and SO2 into the air than a medium sized diesel truck. Plus, they produce the most annoying sound in the world when at full chat. Real nice if you live in an old European city with narrow streets.

Because of the nature of driving qualification in this country (you can't get a proper drivers license until you're 18, but answer a few multiple-choice question will get you a diploma to ride a 50cc moped, scooter or farming tractor at the tender age of 16) the riders are mostly insane 16-18 year-olds. The day the government starts requiring a real driver's license and starts collecting road tax for those racing toilets will be the happiest day of my life.

[Mike Oxlong]

We got the noisy little bastards in Europe too (50cc scooters) and a recent survey concluded that most of them shoot more dust, soot and SO2 into the air than a medium sized diesel truck. Plus, they produce the most annoying sound in the world when at full chat. Real nice if you live in an old European city with narrow streets.

I would hazard a guess that trucks in Japan pollute a lot more than in most European countries. I have heard that both the quality of diesel is better, and the emissions regs stricter in many European countries.

As for scooters, a well-tuned machine might burn a litre of two-stroke oil in two months of daily commuting around town. A poorly tuned scooter will burn the same amount of oil in two weeks. Same goes for the noise. Proper mufflers work wonders. The scooters should be subject to some sort of inspection, just as cars are. This could ensure they are running on decent tires (many are not), emissions compliant (many are not), and meet noise regs (many do not).


I use one to get around in a place where the roads are extremely overburdened with traffic, and there is little alternative. Buses run slow and late being locked in traffic, and taxis can get expensive. No train or subway lines. Not very convenient for most locals. Lane splitting is one of the huge advantages of riding a bike here. Some states in the US allow it, and some studies show it decreases rear-end collisions where car drivers don't see bikes and ram them at lights and intersections. I have heard conflicting information on the legality of filtering/whitelining in Japan. Does anyone know, and if you do, any links to the traffic code in question?