So I’ve been cycling to and from the station for work (a bit under 2km one way) for about three years on this route. Today I got in a small scuffle where a car rolled into the bike lane alongside me and I was able to stay up, but we were touching, his car to my pedal and handlebar, and he didn’t even notice. I was alongside the front row of seats, and he did this to get by a car waiting to turn right.
This was a smaller accident, but in the last 2-3 years I’ve been hit twice in more serious accidents. These have all taken place either in a crosswalk or bike lane.
I feel shitty because I didn’t say anything, nothing was done, and this jiji is gonna keep being a shitty driver with no consequences. The time before this, the guy basically said sorry (seemed like he may have been on something tbh) and again had no consequences. The first time, a grandma ran over my bike right in front of the Koban, so that was easy to deal with but even so like she just had to pay for my bike repairs and had no further consequences.
I feel worried about getting angry and confronting anybody because of all the stories you hear where a Japanese person is just trying to cover their ass and once it comes to Japanese person’s word vs. a foreigner’s, the cops take the Japanese person’s every time, and then what if I get in trouble and have to pay for scratching up someone’s car after getting hit?
How do you protect yourself in these situations? I’ve thought about getting a bike camera, but they ain’t cheap and I feel like it’d get stolen. I feel like I can’t be assertive because of the Japanese person vs. foreigner thing and I have no video proof of these things, but I don’t know what to do about it either. Advice welcome.