In 2010, according to the Universal Traffic Management Society (UTMS) of Japan, 4,863 were killed in traffic accidents in Japan.
This is half of the number killed in 1995, in which 10,679 perished on the nation's roads.
Yet, aside from the occasional story pertaining to a dramatic accident - bus driver falls asleep, plows into barrier killing many onboard; young unlicensed kid, also drowsy, piles into a group of children and parents walking to school, killing several - this rarely makes the news.
Simple math: more than 13 people died every day in traffic accidents in 2010.
Though the share of the total fatalities involving cars and trucks is decreasing - and accidents involving cyclists increasing - the vast majority of those deaths involved cars.
Still the story emanating from the police and their handmaidens in the media is that cyclists are terrorizing Japanese road ways.
The latest from the right-wing, pro-nuclear, pro Liberal Democratic Party Yomiuri Shinbun - the newspaper with the highest daily circulation in the world - is that Tokyo cyclists are not aware of the rules of the road.
In a shocking scoop, the Yomiuri recently reported that only "65% of people know children under 13 are required to wear a helmet while riding a bicycle."
Stop the presses.
© CycleKyoto.com
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