Crowding on Kyoto buses as tourists return creates headaches for stroller users

15 comments

1. I’m amazed at the gigantic luggage people travel with. I literally saw JR staff visibly distressed loading a Shinkansen at Kyoto with a massive line of tourists with huge pieces of luggage.

2. 🔥BIAS BALANCING HEADLINE: Crowding on Kyoto buses as stroller users create headaches for tourists.

3. So are they going to do anything about it or are they just keep on saying TOURISTS BAD! TOURISTS RIDING ON THE PUBLIC TRANSPORT THAT WE PUSHED ON THEM BY CREATING A PASS THAT THEY CAN USE UNLIMITEDLY WITH A FLAT FEE BAD!

   It isn’t like it’s anything new. The buses in Kyoto were horrifyingly overcrowded because of tourism many years ago and not much has been done to help. Maybe make some lines excluded from the pass and very expensive to ride unless you pay tax in Kyoto or something?

   I don’t know if that would be practical or would help, but they really need to do something more aggressive in alleviating the situation than what they have done so far. It just doesn’t make any sense to frame the tourists as the bad guys in every headline when they’re still encouraging them to come?

4. To play devils advocate Kyoto’s infrastructure is also woefully inadequate for the amount of tourists they want (but also don’t want) to visit. They have had a very very long time to do something about this but chose to do nothing.

5. Well maybe come up with a solution because you asked for this

6. So the steps they’ve taken to help the situation (as detailed in the article)

   * Put a blue pushchair logo on the front of the busses
   * Have the mayor say “please don’t take big luggage on the bus” in a press conference that no tourist will ever see.

   Very effective.

   I don’t even understand what the pushchair logo is supposed to achieve.

7. [deleted]

8. There’s a massive disrespect for mothers with kids on public transit by other riders. It’s so weird in an otherwise very respectful culture.

9. It’s golden week right? I was there 6 years ago, I didn’t even know it was Golden Week.. what a shit show.

10. Kyoto does nothing but whine whine whine. Acting like it’s the first historical city in the world to have to deal with tourists. Most the city is the usual Japanese concrete sprawl. I don’t know what their excuse is to not deal with it tbh

11. I remember once getting on a bus in Nagoya with my son in his stroller. The whole time I was made to feel like I had inconvenienced the bus driver and everyone on the bus (not peak time). What makes matters worse is that to fit a stroller on, seats need to be folded up, seats that older people sit in (thus they need to move). Also the stroller has to be strapped down. The procedure is the same for a wheelchair user but no one would think twice.

    I asked my husband to call Nagoya transportation bureau to ask if I was allowed to take a stroller on or if it was only at certain times (any time is fine).

    Even getting on the subway with a stroller can be problematic as the stroller spaces are at the ends of the train, so you have to walk all the way down the platform dodging all the gormless idiots glued to their phones.

    ​

    FYI, I usually would use my baby carrier but I got a hernia and wasn’t able to carry my baby for long periods after the surgery.

12. 路👏面👏電👏車👏
    There’s more than enough demand for longer streetcars in downtown Kyoto. The extra capacity of multi-car trams would allow more room for strollers and reduce the lines at the station considerably.

    Time to get to where European cities were in the 1990s and early 2000s.

13. Kyoto city has no one to blame but itself. They have three, THREE years to figure out other ways to get tourists around the city and they practically did nothing. Basically they forced the problem onto residents who in turn blame the tourists that pay for so many of their livelihoods. I knew this would happen and was not looking forward to when it did. If you live in Kyoto you know to avoid the busses unless absolutely necessary.

14. Japan during covid: “Oh, no tourists!”
    Japan when the tourists return: “Oh no, tourists!”

15. Hope it’s damn better than the ptv