Bike Lanes Kyoto

自転車専用レーン京都

A cruel joke? A pathetic attempt that resulted in abysmal failure?

As reported in the Kyoto Shinbun and the Kyoto pages of the Asahi Shinbun, Kyoto recently created a bike lane, its first since 1976 when a small portion of a street in distant south Kyoto was set aside for bikes.

The newspapers basically printed verbatim the press release they no doubt received from the City.

To wit:

As a means of reducing bike-related accidents, the city has created a bike lane that runs in front of the prefectural police building along Shinmachi Dori.

The 300 meter long blue lane is painted blue and has large block kanji that read 自転車専用 (jitensha senyo = bikes only).

Also in the works are bike lanes on Gojo Dori and possibly Oike Dori.

The former is expected to open at the end of February, and run 1.4 km from Gojo Ohashi to Horikawa. It will be created by fencing off a 5 meter wide area on the sidewalk for cyclists. This will separate bikes and pedestrians.

This is yet another example of why everything the mainstream media in Japan - with its press clubs and advertising revenues from big corporations - should be taken with a very large grain of salt.

We rode over yesterday to take a test spin in the "bikes only" lane. The lane is utterly meaningless because:

1. there is no barrier between the bike lane and the part of the street reserved for automobiles.
2. a taxi lane was left intact, and cuts the bike lane in two (God forbid the bureaucrats at the nearby Prefectural government building might have to walk a bit to hail a cab).
3. the painting on the street that designates the lane is sporadic - at the beginning and end only.
4. and, finally, the street itself is wide and not a major thoroughfare. Why on earth was a bike lane created here of all places? There is no need, repeat, no need here.

やれやれ。(Yare yare = Oh God...)

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