Japan cracks down on its wayward cyclists

After years of tolerating anarchy on its roads, Japan is laying down the law on cyclists: parasols are blacklisted, wobbly steering could land you in legal peril and woe betide shoppers caught pedalling back from the supermarket with unevenly loaded bags. From April 1, police across Japan have begun enforcing a 2024 amendment to the 1960 Traffic Act that imposes fines for 113 cycling violations, many of them relatively minor rule infractions. For decades, cyclists have woven along Japan's streets and pavements without the need for a licence, and facing little interference from law enforcement or social disapproval. About 8mn Japanese were using bicycles as part of their commute to work or school at the time of the last census in 2020. However, that laissez-faire approach has come to an abrupt end. In the name of making Japan's roads safer, police will be authorised under a new "blue ticket" system to hand out on-the-spot fines to cyclists ranging from ¥3,000 ($19) for misuse of a bell and ¥6,000 for sudden braking to ¥12,000 for leaving their bike in a parking spot reserved for elderly drivers. Many of the new penalties are designed to enforce traffic rules that are rigorously applied to motor vehicles but for which cyclists -- from parents conveying children to school to couriers delivering lunch boxes to office workers -- have long faced only verbal warnings. Other measures -- such as bans on using headphones, cycling with one hand, using fixed-gear bikes with no brakes and carrying "unevenly loaded cargo" -- are new, cyclist-specific offences. Riding without a helmet, however, is not among the list of infractions. The fines will be applied to cyclists over the age of 16. "I've been cycling since I was a child and I was stopped for the first time today," said Teranishi, a 61-year-old hairdresser who was pulled over by police on his way to his salon in Tokyo's Shibuya district for holding an umbrella while cycling in the drizzle. "Everyone carries an umbrella in the rain," he said. "They actually only gave me a warning but they told me next time it would be a fine." One particularly controversial new rule will require cyclists to ride on the road, rather than the pavement. Children and those over the age of 70 will be exempt, but the rule stands to force millions of cyclists on to unfamiliar streets, where they will encounter drivers unaccustomed to sharing road space. By 2023, greater Tokyo had installed 51km of cycle lanes. A further 26km were planned, but the Tokyo metropolitan government and the transport ministry were unable to confirm how much of it had been built. Many bike lanes are also often blocked by parked cars. Over the past 20 years, the number of cyclists in Japan has fallen by about a quarter, while the annual tally of accidents involving bikes has dropped by about 60 per cent to 67,470. More than three-quarters of those accidents involved collisions between cars and bicycles, while about 3,000 incidents involved pedestrians. Authorities point to government research showing that in 75 per cent of accidents, the cyclist was in violation of existing traffic laws and argue that the new regime will ultimately save lives. In the first days under the new enforcement regime this week, Japanese media have focused on public outrage at what many see as a government cash grab. "The number of accidents is falling, just like the amount of crime in Japan. The police just invented something more to do," said a female cyclist in Tokyo's Roppongi district after being fined for riding without a working light. Still, a survey conducted by insurance group Sompo found that 64.5 per cent of Japanese adults approved of the new blue ticket system, although only 16.5 per cent claimed to understand its details.