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In San Francisco, there's this common view that you can't ride on the sidewalk because _it's dangerous_! So I took this long trip to Japan, and everyone rides t
by scarejunba 7y ago
In San Francisco, there's this common view that you can't ride on the sidewalk because _it's dangerous_! So I took this long trip to Japan, and everyone rides their bikes on the sidewalk there and shifts to the road when they want to and Japan is safer.
Made me wonder.
And it was everywhere. In Tokyo, where it's crowded. In Odawara, where it's less so.
EDIT: You know what I think? This is the same thing as the panic around kids playing outside. The notion of 'danger' is overplayed in the West.
- o_nate 7y agoI saw the same thing in Tokyo. It may have something to do with the common courtesy of the bikers to yield to pedestrians and not buzz past them. Here in NYC, I'm much more terrified of bikers who stick to the road (given that I occasionally have to cross the street) than I was of bikers on sidewalks in Tokyo.