I'm not trying to attack you; sorry if I seemed harsh. My whole point was that there are parts of Tokyo that are not like the (generally much older) parts you'

I'm not trying to attack you; sorry if I seemed harsh. My whole point was that there are parts of Tokyo that are not like the (generally much older) parts you're thinking of. Next time you're at the mall there, check out the bike parking garage next to the AEON entrance (on the east side). Of course, the people living at the towers don't bike to the mall, since they live right next to it, but my whole point is that these places aren't "un-cyclable" just because they're not cyclable between two random points (which happen to be separated by a huge river where it empties into the bay). Your whole claim that Ariake is un-cyclable seems to come from the assumption that everyone lives west of the river, which just isn't true: lots of people live in Koto-ku and Edagawa-ku, and many parts of those are bikable to Ariake. To be sure, living in that part of Tokyo does separate you from the parts west of the river in many ways, especially by bicycle. But still, many people live in these parts and ride bikes every day there. They just don't ride to Meguro :-) AFAICT, most cyclists in Tokyo do not ride long distances at all: they use their bikes to ride around their local neighborhood, and especially to get groceries. I've met a bunch of people who told me the only time they ride a bike is to get groceries, in fact. They don't use their bikes to ride halfway across the city; they use the trains for that. People who ride long distances seem to be pretty abnormal.