The Bicycle Paradox

As many of you know travel by bicycle is one of the most popular forms of transportation in many parts of Asia, and Japan is no exception. It never ceases to amaze me the pure number of bicycles on the road in Japan. One of my first memories of Japan is nearly being hit by a bicycle during my first day here when I was horribly jet lagged. It took me a while but I finally bought my own bicycle last February and I have never looked back. Here it’s common to ride on the sidewalks as the streets are slim and the sidewalks are rather wide. But this Tuesday I had my first taste of what I like to call the Japanese Bicycle Paradox (patent pending).

As you walk around Japan you will see a large number of congregations of bicycles, usually near big apartment buildings, popular restaurants and bars, large office buildings and most notably train stations. In fact some of these places have parking lots specifically for bicycles and charge well for the privilege of using them. But most people simply park on the street and risk the chance that their bicycle could be stolen (not really an issue when you have a piece of shit like mine) or worse, impounded by the city.

The problem is everywhere you look, every corner, in front of every shop and station is a big sign, like show above which states, very clearly in any language, don’t park your bicycle here. Yet the more signs they put up the more people park their bicycles there. I was unlucky enough to have my bicycle impounded on Tuesday from a place I thought there where no signs. Guess I was wrong. Not only that, but since I used a plastic/metal rope lock to secure the bicycle to a fence, I’ll have to buy a new one since they most likely clipped it.

Today is rainy so I won’t be making it to the Impound, but from what I hear it’s in Osakako, only a few stations away and it’s huge, apparently organized by station name and impound date. And it costs 20 bucks to get your bicycle back.

The situation is clear: there are too many bicycles and too many areas designated by the city to be a no parking zone. Let’s get to work boys, stop wasting money impounded the freaking things (according to my Japanese friend only like 40% of impounded bicycles are actually recovered) and sort out the situation.

BTW: you’ll notice I used the bicycle in the post instead of the more America bike and for good reason. In Japanese bicycle is jitensha, but the word bike in Japanese actually means a motor scooter or moped. Hope you learned something!

Wisdom of the Day: The things you put off until next month always need to be done around the same time as 50 other things.