I only have my experience in the UK and here.
First: i am a cyclist myself and its my primary way of getting around day to day for gym or errands.
What i see is a complete lack of awareness or regard for others by cyclists here. So many times i have almost been hit by them when at a pedestrian crossing because apparently the red light only applies to cars in the road not cyclists. So my first step onto the road has been met with a very close collision.
Other times i avoid getting hit because I know the useless idiot on the bicycle in front of me is not going to slow down or take a predictable path on the perimeters of the crossing so i stop walking to avoid them smashing me.
I see people not check behind them when abruptly changing directions or moving to the other side to let people pass on the road or on the sidewalk.
I see them rarely check side roads as they approach them while cycling on pavement.
I see them cycle in the rain with umbrellas which is fine but they go at normal speeds still which isnt.
I see them not obey stop signs at cross roads.
I see them just decide to cut across cross roads with stop signs without looking.
Then combine all the above with mothers on electric bicycles going way too fucking fast.
There are plenty of idiots and prats in the UK believe me, when it comes to cycling but not even close to this which i witness here every day.
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ooooh thats a hard one!
In the UK where I am also from, back home your typical ‘I’m a cyclist by the way?’ cyclist is a massive bell and is perfectly demonstrated by the Jeremy Hunt videos. Think they own the roads and love their shitty spandex.
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However,
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Japan as you say has the most ruthless gang of bone crunching teeth sucking blood vultures you’ve ever known electric bike mums. I take my son to school every morning and they wizz past me at 180 MPH with just an inch in it. They go way to fast honestly and I see a lot of near misses. Just this morning I swear I saw one take off from the ground and narrowly miss a plane…
Seriously, joking aside, they need to slow down.
The sheer numbers of these actually give Japan the victory so I’ll say overall Japan is the worst for cyclists.
Edit:
What i see is a complete lack of awareness or regard for others by cyclists, **drivers, and pedestrians** here.
I’d say that cyclists are actually the most aware of their surroundings, compared to pedestrians who are either walking four abreast or buried in their smartphones, or automobile drivers watching television in their cars and looking back at their kids jumping around, or even joggers (who don’t get enough guff on here) who run resolutely in a straight line expecting everyone around them to be the ones dodging.
It’s a pretty low bar, but seemingly everybody else is worse.
People can’t even walk properly here, dead stops, rapid turns, absolutely zero awareness of their surroundings. Now add to that people cycling on sidewalks and playing Need for Mamachari 3, it’s just wild.
I am a cyclist and I just cycle on the roads, even if there is a bike lane on a sidewalk, someone will be walking on it. So street it is.
It’s the blind corner cruisers that scare me. I get it though, there are so many of those and stopping at each and everyone of them hurts my soul. Even so, I still can’t set the fear setting to zero and just blast through those. I don’t know how they do it.
I love seeing someone blitz through a stop sign but ringing their bell for …safety??
Japanese people are enrolled at birth into a competitive game of not being in a hurry, from which they’re only exempt while wearing a suit or work uniform (in which case they’re playing the opposite game of looking as busy as possible). Giving way to someone else wins you points, as it shows that they are in a greater hurry than you. You get bonus points if you are so completely fucking oblivious that you didn’t even notice you were in the way to begin with. This technique was relatively risk-free in the feudal period, but since the invention of bicycles and quiet, efficient Japanese cars, it’s practically a death-wish, or as I like to call it, suicide by 和.
Here? Nah.
I’m from inner city Chicago, cyclists there will just run people over left and right.
I fucking hate people on bikes when I’m in the US. Here, it’s definitely not as bad, people don’t ride road bikes here, they don’t travel fast enough to be a major problem.
UK cyclist – aggressive idiots
Japan cyclist – gormless idiots
The problem here is that if a cyclist causes an accident with a car, the car is automatically at fault.
As others have mentioned the lack of awareness here is astounding, looking Left or Right, Nah just speed on through, looking behind you forget it.
99% of cyclists here are cunts. Absolutely have no consideration of cars, pedestrians and lights. Fucking pests. Acting like they own the road. And when you try to make a left and squeeze them so you can go first they act like cars are not sharing the road. YOU are not sharing the road, cunt. You don’t want to slow down because its harder for you to gain a momentum again? Then take a train bitch.
And the police is blind here regarding cyclists. They only look for bicycles that have two adults on it. And chase them with their siren blaring.
Worst of it all is they dont fucking use the bicycle lane. Near where i live theres a fucking line for bicycles and its wide enough. Still fucking cyclists decides to cycle on the road. With their tight fucking latex on. cunts
No way near.
And when I lived in US was even worse .
In general (we’re in Nara), as others have said, there is no situational or spatial awareness on the part of a lot of the pedestrians, cyclists and drivers here. On top of that, none of them appear know the rules either.
Crosswalk with a yield to pedestrians sign? Maybe 50% drivers stop.
Are cyclists vehicles? I’m not even sure anymore as they ride everywhere. I’ve seen some turn into oncoming traffic and get surprised when cars, or in the craziest one, a bus that had no time to stop honked at them.
I’ve seen more than a few pedestrians cross when there’s oncoming traffic.
Yes 1000000x worse. In my home
Country pedestrians have the right away, cyclists also have their own lanes or have to ride on the road, helmets are mostly mandatory as well.
The cycling community here is way bigger as well – it baffles me how cyclists will demand right of away. The faster the mode of transport the more defensive behavior should be practiced is how I feel
OH yeah. Basic cyclists here are pretty blind to what’s going on around them.
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ROAD cyclists are good here, but the basic mama-chari or errand cyclist are always on their phone or dont give a shit.
The only bike accident I’ve ever been in here was with a woman crossing my path (with me having the right of way) and her going the wrong way on a one way road. I wasn’t paying attention to the way she surprised me from because “This is Japan! Who would break such a simple rule?”
There are people here who absolutely refuses to move to let people out of the train first. So, people here have no awareness it’s quite concerning. This is no different for cyclists. Everyone here is playing some kind of GTA
Something I realised a while ago was the complete lack of awareness of road danger in general here. People not wearing seatbelts, kids climbing around the back of a car, cyclists never checking anything, people walking out into the road, drivers fixated on one direction when pulling into traffic (literally the reason for a recent traffic accident I was in. Old guy never looked right while pulling out from the left to go right).
I also realised something else. My wife watches the TV here because she needs to keep up to date with the local and regional news. I have never once seen a major traffic awareness commercial or danger awareness PSA. It could be that I have just missed them, but also being from The UK we could not possibly miss them. From crash tests being shown on morning news, to the cute hedgehog and his song about crossing the road. As far as I can tell, all of that is missing here and it shows.
Cyclists in Japan are terrifying. I was in Japan a couple of months ago. It floored me how many times I almost got run over.
I like Hong Kong. We have bike paths almost everywhere.
I lived in UK 12 years and been here 4. So far I’ve never seen a cyclist died luckily while I unfortunately saw several dead cyclists in London. I ride/rode a motorbike in both cities. The traffic in London is brutal.
I reckon cyclists feel ‘safer’ here as indeed they don’t look before overtaking which is silly…
One difference are the cars and buses are less ´aggressive ´ here.
Stay safe.
I drove around Odawara and I think cyclists in Japan are the same as cyclists in my home country. I have to make sure my car leaves a big gap so I don’t hit the cyclist and vice versa.
However a few times I almost got hit by cyclists when walking 😐
They act exactly like the cyclists back home in Ireland: running red lights, moving between footpaths and roads without signalling and generally cruising through pedestrian areas without warning. I’m inclined to believe the infrastructure is to blame because the bike paths also remind me of the ones at home
I’m from the Netherlands, and I would say, normal cyclists generally have better manners in my country. But Japan at least doesn’t have “wielrenners” (cyclists in cycling sport gear) who act like complete d*ckheads.
A lot of Japan has the volume of bikes of many Western European countries but not the infrastructure to deal with them, unfortunately.
It’s not like Dutch people for example are inherently better cyclists, just that they have bike lanes and civil engineering that takes their needs into account.
I was hit by a cyclist ignoring a red light in the UK, I’ve only nearly been hit so far here.
So no, not worse. Equally as twatish though!
I see a lot of people complaining about cyclists here, but I never see enough people pointing out the fact that car drivers are always parking at bicycle lanes, which makes it impossible for any cyclists who don’t wanna die to use the road, which forces them to use the sidewalks and results in the current messy situation
heh if anyone wants to ride a bicycle in australia theyre asking for a death wish, some people there actively tries to maim cyclists
remember how you road a bicycle when you were around 10? let’s pretend you spent the next 50 years doing it the same way.
Pedestrians are still a lot worse. I also hate the way people here get on trains. Moving slowly, blocking others who want to find a seat or worse even, suddenly standing still the moment they set foot inside the train so others might miss their chance to get in if it’s right before the doors are closing. Literally zero awareness of their surroundings.
It’s not just cyclists.
It’s fucking EVERYONE dude.