I've been meaning to make this video for a while, so I'm happy to finally have it out. For a long time I didn't think I could make it because I just didn't know enough about urban design or city planning to figure out how to talk about why I like biking in Tokyo. After seeing the Copenhagenize Index's rankings and seeing how all these other cities ranked similar to Tokyo, I felt more confident that I could at least talk about what I like about Tokyo as well as understand why it doesn't rank so well. If you liked this video, I think you'll like a couple other creators that just made content about Japanese cities and its streets. One is from Not Just Bikes ua-cam.com/video/jlwQ2Y4By0U/v-deo.htmlsi=TH3aNA9UeWNu2oyO and the other by City Beautiful (it's on Nebula only right now) nebula.tv/videos/citybeautiful-tokyo-has-the-best-streets-in-the-world
Indexes are subjective by nature and should not taken as absolute. It is a collection of data figures taken together. You can do anything with that the Copenhagenize Index is no different to that. Actually it is quite crap. years ago i looked up how the indicators were measured. And it was total crap. Really a joke . The parameters were set to make Copenhagen look good. Hardly to be taken serious at all . (Actually a friend of mine lived in CPH, she mentioned that the gov. would set up research that would 'show that Denmark was the happiest country' . Or something like that. Not measure how 'happy Danish people are' . Outcome directed research so to say. That feeling I have with the Copenhagenize Indez as well ). edti : The insurance exclusion of bike commuting in Japan is really bad ! Cycling seems mostly limited to short neighbourhood rides and there are not good bike paths for medium/long. Yet an amazin 15% uses the bike. that is a lot, for the situation. Do you feel safe along busier streets ? (I would assume, with japanese culture in mind, that cars might be more cautious to peds/bikes than in other countries ...). Not Just Bikes Jason was in Japan recently. Did you meet ? (he referred to you anyway).
On the one hand, I love that I can ride my bike pretty much anywhere I need to go. Buying a bike soon after moving to Tokyo was one of my best investments. On the other hand, it is very annoying that bicyclists who are on the sidewalk treat pedestrians as obstacles, and cars treat bikes like THEY are obstacles. Cars will purposely cross into the bike lane to try an force you onto the sidewalk and I have heard of some driving instructors encouraging this behavior from their students for "safety."
In rural areas in Japan, almost everyone who can drive, drives. I live in ‘semi-rural’ small town Japan, and it’s a bit of a mix. Cars are still popular, but a decent number of people (including myself) use a bike to get around town. It often ends up being quicker than driving, and with gas prices the way they are it just makes sense. For long distance trips, like between cities, trains are generally the popular choice.
@@mindstalk agree totally. We don’t have many bike lanes, etc. where I live, so to compensate for that, drivers give priority (and lots of space) to cyclists. In the morning there are school kids weaving all over the roads, but I’ve never heard of a serious accident.
I have visited Tokyo with my family for about a month for the last decade and really appreciate the fact that bikes are so integrated into the daily lives of most people in the city. Honestly, I feel like the Copenhagenize Index feels like a Western European view of cycling. It's seems weighted towards physical infrastructure and governmental regulations and advocacy. My experience in Japan is that biking is more accepted by the society and allowances are made fo things like cycling on sidewalks and the fact that you can pretty much bike anywhere. Some specific observations: Traffic calming measures - I feel like the narrow neighborhood streets with their non-grid layout is itself a traffic calming measure. The major streets need some more of this but really it's much more enjoyable riding on the side streets. Cargo bikes - really, the mamachari bikes with multiple seat attachments are themselves cargo bikes. As always, I found your video informative and thoughtful. Thanks!
100% agree. The Copenhagenize Index doesn't take alternative infrastructure into effect. A very walkable/bikeable village with no explicit bike lanes but which gets only 5 cars a day, and therefore is essentially risk-free for biking, would rank low despite being in practice a great place to bike.
The index weighting is very flawed. For example, just talking about cargo bikes, they're just not needed in Japan for personal use when most stores are within walkable distance and delivery is often an option. Not to mention that kei cars are a much better and still affordable option for those that really need to move cargo. The Copahahen index doesn't take such situations into account so the index scores can be very misleading.
I think you make a very good point. Tokyo seems very much a square peg to the index's round hole - they address the issues in quite a different manner than do western cities, and it seems on the whole to work.
To me physical infrastructure (and having that organized in efficient routes) is the single most important factor (probably 90% or more) when it comes to bike-friendlyness, everything else is more or less negligable.
Can I just say thanks for the complete linked source list? It was so handy to be able to quickly go look at them, and I've bookmarked quite a few. Top notch thinking of your viewers.
NJB and City Beautiful were both recently in Japan. Don’t know if their trips overlapped, but I was hoping that there was going to be a 3-way collab with Life Where I’m From. Even if it doesn’t exist, still nice to see content from the three.
Bicycles in Japan are 95% mamachari, which is meant for rides less than 2km, whereas bikes in Europe are used for more longer distances. If you’re going to travel more than 2km in Tokyo, you’re inclined to use the trains/subway. The concept of using bikes among the public is different from that of what people in Europe envision.
This is a very good point (especially regarding big, tight, and old cities like Tokyo) and explains why there's little motivation to change the infrastructure.
I wouldn't say that European countries like the Netherlands are too different. Dutch people also use upright bikes for short distances and trains for longer ones.
Its not necessarily just that, its that japan as a whole is so absurdly hostile towards bikes just on an infrastructure basis that even if you wanted to, its just not a great idea. Too many close calls
I'm no expert either and only experience other cities' bicycle infrastructure vicariously through UA-camrs, but it does seem to me that Tokyo might be ranked lower because the study comes from a more de-suburbanizing Western perspective. The expectation is that many cities have been too car-centric for decades and need to bring bicycling in from the margins, whereas in Tokyo, bicycling has already been a more common fixture of daily life and city planning. It doesn't have as many of the exciting new additions to improve bicycle infrastructure like we see in other cities, but that's because so many neighborhoods are already so dense and more human scale that they're organically bicycle friendly. Narrow streets and densely populated neighborhoods are basically de facto traffic-calming measures.
It seems they're losing some points for lack of progress for sure, which does speak to a high starting point in terms of bike riders. However, don't ignore the problems pointed out in this video, cycling long distance in Tokyo is seriously suboptimal, and that's because of the total lack of dedicated bike infrastructure. Tokyo lucks into a decent local biking experience because of its urban design, but it's larger roads are actively hostile to cyclists, and it's impossible to navigate across the city without a good portion of your ride taking those bigger roads.
@@scruvydom Cycling long distance anywhere is suboptimal (assuming the trip has a practical rather than recreational purpose), even with dedicated bike infrastructure. Heck, medium distance is a challenge. The average person would take ~45 minutes to bike ten miles and be a sweaty, exhausted mess at the end. (Strava data has the average user's speed at ~14 mph, and this is for people serious enough about their cycling that they track their rides.) Tokyo is perfectly well designed for practical use bicycling (bike to station & take train to work; bike to grocery store; bike kids to/from school; etc.), but not very good for recreational cyclists who want to put in 25+ miles on a ride.
In regards to company commute, a lot of companies pay for your commute. I once worked for 3 months at a bread factory in Japan. When i got hired, I fill out all the information like where i live and emergency contacts ( as any company normally would ) In the end, they calculated my bus fair based on where i lived. Which was about 3.00 dollars a day round trip. So I got an extra 3.00 dollars a day. But what I and most people do if you live somewhat close to where you work is you take your bike and commute to work. I saved an extra 3 dollars a day, which i pretty much used up buying cold drinks at the vending machine on hot days. I would only take the bus if it was raining or feeling lazy.
They have to pay because of how the insurance is integrated. It's also why most Japanese companies prohibit commuting using your own car, so you have no choice but commute the always packed buses and trains because everyone else also has to take them.
What were the bus frequencies like? The ones in Osaka seemed terrible (30 minutes), but Osaka is a train-heavy city. The tourist circulator in Nara was great (4 minutes), but I don't know if the other buses there are like that.
@@mindstalk It depends on many factors like where the bus stop is located and where the bus is headed, the time of the day, the day of the week, etc. Bus routes are often short too, so it may take several bus transfers to go anywhere. In the morning there's a bus every 10 minutes or so. But in the evening there's like only 1 per hour. Buses are often late 3-5 minutes. Which makes it hard to plan your commute, especially if you then need to make it in time to the train station to take a Rapid train to another city, like in my current situation. Arrive one minute late and you have to either take the slower Local train or wait for another Rapid. I'm not riding a bike in Osaka. But walking 15-20 minutes to the station in this heat (or a combination of heat + rain) every time there's no bus is a real pain. Especially when you have to commute wearing a suit and business shoes. The company pays only the cheapest route possible from A to B, regardless of which route you actually took to commute to work.
@@HaohmaruHL An additional point is that companies do (or certainly did) get a tax break for the money they spend on "commuter fees". They can write the expense off on their taxes so it's seen as a win-win.
There are very few separated bike/multi-use paths in Okinawa. Those that exist generally don't lead anywhere, but are provided for exercise and nice views - kind of like stretched out parks. Despite the lack of functionality, these places almost always have lots of pedestrians, cyclists, and tourists enjoying them. The rest of urban Okinawa is a car-centric hellscape, where it is unpleasant and unsafe to bike or walk. There is almost no public transportation. Local residents are forced to drive everywhere, and those that can't are trapped at home. This naturally beautiful subtropical island is increasingly overrun with traffic, parking lots, and ever-widening roads. A paved paradise indeed.
@@mfaizsyahmi That's certainly what started it, but that ended 52 years ago. Since then, the prefectural government has received TONS of money from the central government in exchange for hosting U.S. bases. What do they use the money for? Complaining about U.S. bases and building boondoggle projects. Okinawa remains among the poorest, most poorly educated prefectures in the nation. Not having a decent transportation system hurts not only its citizens, but also cripples its most important industry - tourism. It's inexcusable.
man this channel has been on my top favourite ones since years ago now... Just wanted to share a thought: It makes me incredibly happy to see you've found your piece of heaven, family and life in such a cool place. It has its challenges, of course, but it seems like a much nicer life than ours here in Europe or North America
For a bike with a couple of kids on it, I'd want to have a motor and a "walk mode" to assist getting up that ramp though. From a UK perspective, such a ramp would probably be decried as an accessibility issue as well. But I guess Tokyo is excellent for people with mobility issues more generally, because public transport is everywhere and from what I can tell, stations are very good in terms of accessibility (and I would bet that the lifts are much more reliable than here).
Where I live in California has dedicated bike lanes on every major road but everyone rides on the sidewalk due to the 50MPH speed limit. Back in the 90's I worked for Applied Materials and later for IBM in Silicon Valley, both companies provided free public transit passes and the local transit service let you take your bike on any bus or light rail train (if there was room.) It was great having multiple options for commuting. I got a car eventually simply because it took a minimum of an hour to commute by bike but only 15-30 minutes by car.
I’m also in California, Los Angeles specifically and our transportation infrastructure is basically terrible. It is designed for cars mainly. The society has been indoctrinated to have an identity connected to the car they drive. Although driving in the USA is a privilege most drivers believe it is their right and that other modes of transportation are a hindrance to their fantasy rights.
I live in Strasbourg and it doesn't deserve high ranking, and especially not 6th place. Moved here about a year ago and rarely used my bike. Not only theft is a big problem, but there's no dedicated cycling infrastructure. You're expected to cycle on the street together with cars, which is VERY unsafe. Few times I tried, I got honked at multiple times and nearly died. I can't help but compare it to my hometown (Łódź in Poland), where the entire city was covered with dedicated cycling paths... which is much better than Strasbourg when it comes to cycling. I used to take a bike or public transport to get to school. Here I'm always taking a tram + bus to get to the office (despite the fact it takes longer), as I don't feel safe going to the office by bike.
Strasbourg has quite a lot of dedicated and separated cycling infrastructure. Notably along several water channels and tram lanes as well as a few of the bus routes that get a lot of traffic. Most of that infrastructure isn't even new, so I am not even sure why it improved so much in the rankings. What's also great about bike routes in Strasbourg, is that they are mostly continuous. You can go from a surrounding village through Strasbourg to a different village on the other side, without ever leaving the dedicated bike lane (physically separated from the cars) except for crossings. There are even two car-less bridges across the river to Germany, though the older one is a hassle to drive across and a bit tight for mixed usage with people going by foot. Bike theft and bike part theft is a serious issue though, and I don't trust French drivers.
Oh wow, I can't think of a more important priority than rider SAFETY. How terrible to falsely rank a city just due to politics. Can you imagine another large city equal to the size of Tokyo being safe enough for little children, parents w/ children biking daily? And the issue of theft, how appalling! Theft is a big issue in the USA, organized crime regularly steal bikes from residences here. Governments should prioritize personal character instead of charades.
Two things I noticed that have changed in the last 20 years: bike parking has become cumbersome. Most places forbid parking, police is quick to collect your bike, you need to use paid parking structures which again shaves off time (and a bit of money), the other is that legally bikes are not allowed to use sidewalks, unless indicated, but the majority still do, because they are afraid to share the road with cars.
YOu didn't cover the 'no need to be cool' factor. A bike is just a mode of transport, nobody cares what brand it is or what it looks like. I remember a story of my young cousin in my hometown in Australia. I asked why she didn't ride to school. Her words....'it's not cool'. I laughed at people making their lives harder for the sake of fashion. Personally, I'm 100% function over fashion. I love my bike and its basket. Good vid
Live in Kichijoji and am a rollerblader. I couldn't think of a better place to skate with the majority of this massive city being relatively car free and having great pavement.
Good analysis, Greg! We've always loved your bike videos, and we've seen some other channels (like Not Just Bikes and City Berautiful, as you mention) where the criteria for "bike friendliness" are discussed. For instance, "Right Turn on Red" is great for motorists but deadly for cyclists. I didn't understand this linkage before so now I am persuaded that banning "Right Turn on Red" is the logical thing to do (in Japan it would be "Left Turn on Red").
I loved biking in Tokyo and had one of the best time ever. Biking here in London is fine but it's a bit annoying sometimes given the bumpy roads and the fear of theft leaving the bike infront of grocery store.
Brought my brompton folding bike with me on a recent trip. loved the mobility and freedom. was even able to explore the kamakura and enoshima seaside after taking my bike on th train. I felt like I could go anywhere with endless possibilities.
For me living in Yokohama since several years, I kind of lost interest in using my bike, which I have been using in Germany almost on daily basis. One reason is that the distances for me are much higher and it’s really a pain that you cannot take your bike on a train, which is possible for almost every train in Germany. I know there are exceptions, if you can fold your bike, but mine isn’t such kind of. Furthermore lot of areas are quite crowded, which makes it dangerous for me and the other pedestrians to share the same area. On the roads I don’t feel comfortable as I feel Japanese are not used to “fast bicycle”, which have speeds of 30kph+, rather than used to slower commuter, which they can overtake easily/quickly. But overall riding your bike near a river, is really a huge please especially during autumn or spring season.
Ngl I find it really funny that copenhagen ranks itself so highly as a biking city. Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of bikes 'round here (I live in copenhagen), but it could be quite a lot better than it is. The whole idea of copenhagen being the judge of bike-friendliness, while just "coincidentially" ranking itself the highest on the list, seems suspicious to me (because I do think it overblows it's bike-friendliness quite significantly). One of the simplest descriptors of this, is the amount of seperated bicycle lanes. Copenhagen has 23kms of those across the city, whereas amsterdam has ~965km of seperated bicycle lanes. The idea that Copenhagen is the most bike friendly city is (in my honest opinion as someone who has biked a lot in copenhagen), absurd.
@@mindstalk the title of the video is Copenhagen is great... But it's not Amsterdam It's not directly about the index, but does address it appropriately imo
Haven't biked in Japan myself, but Tokyo mostly seems fine to me, from what I've seen. Particularly the small streets, but I also find the wide sidewalks fine. The most troublesome thing definitely seems to be the big busy roads with small sidewalks where you'd mostly be on the road. That doesn't seem super safe. I've always lived in smaller cities in Denmark, which tend to have separated bike paths on busier streets and roads, or at least a marked part of the streets that you can mostly count on drivers not to cross onto (though there are exceptions). Definitely feels like Tokyo could take a lane or two from some of those really wide roads to make bike paths and/or extend the sidewalks.
Can we also mention how beneficial cycling to work is for your mental and physical health? I almost always cycle everywhere up until 10-15km and when I do my morning commute by bike I feel rejuvenated and a lot more energised. The few times I take public transport in the morning I often feel groggy and less cheerful in general.
semi-unrelated but I always watch in awe at how calm and peaceful Tokyo's neighborhood streets are. theyre so quiet and welcoming to people, it makes me smile with a tad bit of envy as an American
this is particularly helpful for us folks who want to cycle Tokyo on their holiday. Specially extra handy in escaping overtourism lately. Thank you Greg! I'd be riding much safer this November :)
I have really been enjoying your video's this year, I hope every one else has had as positive opinion as I have had :D for the bikes, I wish my city/contry looked and felt as safe as this video makes Tokyo look. even with its low rating it appears to be fairly safe. where I am each time I ride the bike, that is not on a dedicated bike/park path, I am scared that at any moment a car will hit me on the street, or will blindly pull out of a parking lot driveway with out even considering a bike. I have nearly been hit several times and a friend has been hit a few times. its scary here in the US. :(
@15:00 , Greg, thank you for explaining as to why people cannot cycle to work. It’s quite annoying (I can’t stand tight or crowded places, will faint) to see people packed like sardines in a train & was wondering why they wouldn’t bike to work. Well, this video answers it.
Fellow Tokyo cyclist here, really happy to see some places I know pop up here ^^ It's nice to see such a balanced take on things too, and a lot of things you mentioned resonated with me. I'm excited to see what more bike infrastructure actually gets built before the end of the decade! Fingers crossed it's not more 'shareows'.
I have been living and biking in Tokyo for two years and it's a mixed bag. The "Tokyo metropolitan area" is vast and encompasses lots of terrain, infrastructure and challenges. For me it ranks higher than US cities I have biked in (and way higher than Okinawa where i lived for 4 years) but there are certainly better places to cycle in Europe. Overall I enjoy biking here and am grateful for all of the provisions for bikes that exist!
Here in Germany I do most things on foot or by bus or tram. I have a bike that I sometimes use for grocery stores further away. Before I moved to a bigger city, I lived in a rural area with bad public transport connections and no grocery store reachable on foot. I used my bike way more then than I do here now.
I am in New York City where large scale bike share has been a game changer. There’s also been a lot of bike infrastructure built in the last few years and more to come. That said, it can be a terrifying place to ride a bike and several bicyclists are killed every year. A significant problem is trucks and cars that do not use care and violate traffic laws. In my NYC neighborhood alone there has been about 5 riders killed over just a few years. All involved trucks and cars breaking the law by speeding, not checking while turning, and other such behavior. Parking in protected bike lanes, even those with a cement barrier, continues to be a problem. Question: Are there statistics on bicyclists death and serious injury in Tokyo?
@@YoJesusMorales that's only a problem on main large streets where cars are going high speeds. the smaller streets cars are going the same speed as bikes.
Very good summation of the situation for cycling. I have commuted to work from the Tama River area to inner Tokyo since 1991, about 17 kilometers one way. Have had maybe 4 accidents, nothig serious. Car drivers back then were not very conscience for cyclists, but have improved a lot in the last 10 years. I very rarely use the sidewalks and in traffic will stick out my arm for signaling. Many cyclists need to be more concerned when riding up from behind pedistrians. Safety is not their number one concern.
Thanks for this very comprehensive video! On the topic of elevated highways, there are probably also many arguments against them, as they are much more expensive for the city/state finances. They still bring a lot (as much) of air pollution, and are only marginally less noisy (? In fact I'm unsure if this has been measured), and they look hideous (especially in some areas such as the Nihonbashi that you featured in your video). In some rare cases, they have something nice under them, but most of the time it is either a river that needs seeing the sun a bit more, or another highway/road at ground level. For work commute, yes, of course the train system in Tokyo is super nice and the go-to solution. While trains are efficient at moving people, they are emitting quite a lot of CO2 (indirectly) in Japan (still much less than cars per passenger of course), and they do not prevent sedentary-related health issues (while not very obvious, it is a raising issue in Japan/Tokyo). I think the city would greatly benefit from having more free-parking options for bicycles, better policies for companies to allow employees to commute by bike, as well as more ambition in developing bike lanes that connect major hubs (work/shops/residential). Maybe a frivolous argument that can be added to this, is that some people do not like/stand trains, and for those it would be good to have another option to commute than trains (or car for the very wealthy). And this would, in turn, relieve (marginally) some trains from being over-crowded, which could then make them more appealing? (Tough it seems the situation is not as bad as what is once used to be in that regard)
Electric trains are quite CO2-efficient, and most people simply are not going to bike the distances efficiently covered by trains. As for sedentary issue... you walk to the train, and if it's crowded, stand as well.
"they are emitting quite a lot of CO2 (indirectly) in Japan (still much less than cars per passenger of course), and they do not prevent sedentary-related health issues (while not very obvious, it is a raising issue in Japan/Tokyo)" Yeah electric train emitting quite a lot of CO2 but not human sweating and have to have hot shower after commuting and I wonder why Japanese considered as the healthiest people in the world and life the longest. Japaneses obesity rate at 3.6 % while Denmark 18.4 % and Netherlands as 17% ? this impossible considering you say they just stand doing nothing.
Interesting vid thanks! Tokyo (Japan in general) is great for getting around your local neighborhood by bike as you said. I like to go long and fast on my road bike so Tokyo would suck for me (the law wants you to keep left on the road but then there's so many cars temporarily parked like you said so you end up weaving in and out of traffic). It's fine in the countryside where I am now though xD
better than 98% of cities in the US atleast. as someone who biked over 15km in Tokyo before and in other cities around japan I can definitely say that Japan overall is very bicycle friendly and I love that you can bike through sidewalks in most places. With just a bicycle and train commute you can access over 90% of all the areas in central Tokyo with ease. The rental bikes are ubiquitous and I find it much more fun to tour tokyo by bike than by walking
This is a fantastic intro to what cycling is like in Japan. How does someone take deep dives into the details without boring a mainstream audience? Maybe the details are not so important for mainstream viewers? What subcultures within cycling are in Japan? How many kinds of people use the infamous mamachari bikes? Is Kirin just a beer or is it a bike race? Are there any group bicycle camping excursions in Japan? How do the many mountains affect rural areas and cycling there?
I currently live in Melbourne, Aus. Here cycling is almost non-existent, but there is some dedicated cycling paths and infrastructure in inner suburbs and hopefully they are building more. In my home city of Christchurch, NZ I guess I just love cycling there, ample of dedicated cycling paths and public bathrooms scattered all around the city the best part is parks all around the city, I so much miss that. I guess it's not on the Copenhagen index because we are tiny when compared to mega-cities like Tokyo but to be honest that is what I love about Christchurch that it is small and friendly.
I live in the Greater Buenos Aires area, in Argentina. It's free-fire for everyone and anyone here. Most folks don't use helmets. Most drivers think they're racing an F1 Grand Prix, motorcyclists think they're Valentino Rossi and bikers that they're Lance Armstrong. Stopped cycling a long time ago because of that. Oh, right. Bus drivers are downright mental, too. Pedestrians are the most endangered, though. Don't need a broken bone or my brains splattered on the ground because someone was in a hurry. Downtown Buenos Aires has bike lanes, but they're a bit of a joke. Extremely narrow and usually using part of the canted gutter next to the sidewalk curve. Great video, Greg. All in all, one could see Tokyo doing more for cyclists in the grand scheme of things. But they have an ample variety of pathways as well and people will use them. Cheers.
You should see my City Bucharest - Romania, Kids under 14 aren't allowed by law to cycle on the streets, Cycling on the sidewalks is prohibited (They say but everyone cycles there) and the speed limit of motorvechicles on a 2 lane street is 50km/h tho people tend to drive over 70km/h on boulevard speed limit goes up to 70km/h tho most of people when the road is clear tend to go over 90km/h On highways speed is 90 on the 1st lane, people drive 120, 2nd lane is 120, people will drive 150, 3rd lane 150 people think its the German Autobahn and drive as fast as their car can go
I really enjoyed your personal reflection about biking in your neighborhood in Tokyo. I live in Denmark, where the infrastructure for biking is really good. However, I don’t use as much. I feel it requires certain focus to use the bike during the rush hours. People can go really fast in the bike lanes. This is positive for an efficient commute. But I have also seen some scary accidents. My personal choice is walking around the neighborhood and commuting by public transport.
In Osaka (at least in the shitamachi where we are) the main street sidewalks are almost all marked as shared bike/pedestrian... and the bikes don't really yield to pedestrians much in my experience! Keeping right when you're walking usually keeps you pretty safe, though.
Ah, the Copenhagenize index, created by Copenhagen. @05:55 It's always pedestrians and cyclists who have to share the small spaces :/ I see in most of your footage that most curbs have a gentle slope, which allows cyclists to hop on the pavement in case of a parked car @08:20 Ginormous bike parking facilities near train stations are such a gift. It's so weird, they're not doing much on the main roads but residential areas look like they're an absolute delight to ride in because of their layout. Also there seems to be a lot of tolerance regarding pavements and 'wild' parking. And at the same time you've got these amazing parking facilities and ramps all across the city...
Yeah, I thought everyone knew it was essentially pro-Danish propaganda. The metrics are selected in order for Copenhagen to come out on top, e.g. the population has to be at least 600 thousand. Copenhagen is 602 thousand, conveniently omitting several Dutch cities that would easily beat Copenhagen.
A huge difference, which those studies will miss, is how much safer and easier it is to park your bike in Japan. A lot of the places I parked my bike at had guards. At least the ones I used next to the university and train stations. The smaller places also had some decent places to leave my bike at. The key thing is, I never felt fear over my bike getting stolen or damaged, hell I even forgot to lock it outside a store once for 40 minutes and no one touched it. The only people who will take your bike is the city if you park it wrong in a high traffic area. The reports are also missing the very important river paths that almost work like a bike highway through a city. Only the subway can match the speed at which you can get from A to B if you utilize the river roads effectively on a bike.
I'm from Costa Rica, a considerably small country with loads of beautiful places to go. Besides almost everyone living in an area of about 20km square, cycling is a nightmare and even not allowed in many roads. I Hope to see more bike lanes in the next years now that the culture of cycling is taking over.
Great video again! Genuine query: does the Japanese summer deter people from biking? At least in Singapore, our high temperature and humidity all year round is a real problem. Many would choose to cycle only in the early mornings or late evenings, and even so, the crazy humidity means you definitely will sweat profusely after a few minutes. The rare few that do cycle to work do so only if their office has showers for them to change out.
I feel I still saw tons of biking when I suffered through August in Osaka. I wasn't paying that much attention to it, though. Note, though, that around 3/4 of bike trips are under 4 km, and many of them are under 2 km. Lots of people don't have cars, and driving short trips is inconvenient anyway. So these are trips where if you weren't biking, you'd be _walking_ in that humid heat. Would you rather walk 10 minutes to the supermarket, or bike?
@@mindstalk The answer is yes to @goldkwi , and yes to @mindstalk . Good explanation. The heat is brutal, but noone really rides far or fast enough to break much of a sweat. At least not more than they'd get by walking.
Very interesting. Thank you. I lived in Tokyo from 1978-85 and often did the 10km commute from my home near Asagaya to Yotsuya by bike. It always felt quite safe, as I dodged onto sidewalks where necessary, and given that I had a 12 minute walk to the station, it took about the same time as commuting by train. My employer knew I was riding to work but never mentioned insurance issues, so maybe worker insurance didn't exist back then. Since then have ridden from time to time on return visits to Tokyo, and it still feels reasonably safe, but not as much as before due to increased car traffic. I have also had a couple of near misses with other cyclists looking at their phones while riding. However, it's still a hell of a lot safer than trying to ride here in cyclist hating Australia
Biking in Tokyo is very good. Better than most cities in New Zealand. Christchurch is probably the best. We visit family in Tokyo from time to time and riding bikes with our Grandchildren is a lot of fun and very safe. Love your channel, thanks Greg and team.
I'm surprised at the relatively low ranking of Tokyo. But I'm not a cyclist...I haven't owned a bike in decades living a car centric/dependent Canadian city. However, on my first trip to Japan I was completely floored at how bikes and pedestrians seemed to integrate together on shared side walks along the busier roads. I walked every where in Tokyo and I didn't feel any issue with sharing the quieter streets or the side walks with bikes. In fact, I was so impressed that I decided to rent a bike and toured around the city that way and had so much fun doing it. And from that experience and subsequent other trips doing the same, I agree with you...I think biking around Tokyo is pretty great. Though, I absolutely love the public transit system there as well :)
I was in Tokyo and Vancouver last year, and Montreal last month. They certainly all have pros and cons when it comes to biking culture/infrastructure. And there's a lot to unpack from the country comparison tool. Some might see Tokyo's drop from 5th to 16th as cause for alarm, but I see that more as the other cities gaining ground as Tokyo doesn't keep up, and less that Tokyo is slipping. That Tokyo slipped from 5th to 12 before falling off the Top 20 entirely, then rocketing back to 9th before slipping to 16th again shows that it seems like they are trying *something* and aren't entirely stagnant in their efforts for biking. But as you pointed out, there seems to be a sweet spot for when choosing a bike makes the most sense; too short of a trip and you're better off just walking (and thus leaving the hassle of locking up or having the bike stolen at home), or too far and you're better off just taking a train. Montreal on the other hand started at 7th and gradually fell to 20th for two consecutive rankings which slows a large decline and only a slow climb back. And Vancouver only cracked the Top 20 for the first time in 2019, which strikes me as odd given how they were pushing bike infrastructure for years if not decades and the Burrard Street Bridge bike lane is (or at least was) the busiest bike lane in North America. Edmonton is trying, but they're still very much beholden to the motorist crowd; as is the case for most prairie cities that have succumbed to urban sprawl and have grown out faster than they've grown up over the years.
I live in Tokyo and regularly use my bike for trips of up to 70km. Having previously only lived in major US cities, I consider Tokyo an amazing city for cycling. I recognize there are things that can make it better for individuals like me who travel further than average across the city, but I think for most people just crossing their local neighborhood it's great.
I've primarily cycled in and around Utrecht over the past 10-15 years so I'm spoiled, but what stressed me out about cycling in Kanazawa and Kyoto (and would stress me out about cycling in Tokyo) is having to negotiate for space with pedestrians on sidewalks. They're often busy and I felt quite insecure about how close I could get to people and if it was okay to ring my bell and make them step aside. I wonder what the rankings are based on exactly though - back to the video!
Regio Rotterdam hier! ik denk dat we in Nederland allemaal wel verwend zijn met hoe alles voor de fietser ingericht is. Ik ga volgend jaar, voor het eerst naar Japan, en was erg benieuwd wat nou de stoepfietsetiquette is. ?Greg? (de presentator iig) zegt dat je dus gewoon op de stoep kan fietsen - tenzij anders aangegeven - maar dat de voetganger voorrang heeft. dit is ook hoe jij het ervaarde? Ik vermoed dat japanners met het belletje rinkelen niet zo op prijs zullen stellen, of was dat voor jou niet zo?
I'm from Montreal, and I visited Japan last year. And although I didn't get to bike as much, I do feel conflicted. Biking in Montreal is fairly safe because of the recent infrastructure. But once you get outside those bike lanes, it can be quite challenging. In Japan, initially you would think it would feel intimidating, but I think it's the space of the streets and general awareness of people that somehow makes it quite easy to bike around in Tokyo. And like mentioned in the video, biking is just efficient with what you need to do.
You also won't get to the store faster by car if there's nowhere adjacent to park your car. I didn't see car parking by your store, and of the four markets near me when I lived in Osaka, the closest car parking was a paid garage _adjacent_ to Tennouji station... with the markets in the basement of the station. So you're walking a few minutes anyway. Vs. abundant and free or very cheap bike parking right by the entrance of the non-train station markets, and outside Tennouji. As for the video points: yeah! across the board. Living in Osaka and seeing its 25% bike mode share showed me that the Dutch bike paths aren't vital. What's vital is separation from fast cars, done by slow shared streets (both countries), or separation on fast roads via dedicated path (Dutch) or multi-use wide sidewalk (Japan, as you highlight.) People are happy to bike as long as they're not scared of being run down. I was tickled to see the MITT chart of fastest travel times. The blogger kchoze had made similar graphs, to understand by bus service is terrible in major Japanese cities (answer: it's squeezed out by walking, biking and trains; bus is almost never the fastest mode, unless maybe you can't walk far due to age or something.) Never knew there was an official version!
As a Montreal lifetime cyclist who's biked in many different city's and just recently visited Tokyo.... I absolutely loved biking there. The local grandma's and the day to day but also the faster big action which traverses neighborhoods:Tokyo drivers are very conscious of bikes. Tokyo deserves to be much higher on the list, they may lack western type bike infrastructure, but cycling as part of the culture is.much further evolved than certainly anywhere in North America.
I’ve been to a few of those places. Which city would I rather commute in? Vancouver beats Tokyo & Taipei easily. (Of course, most USA cities I’ve been to aren’t even close to being on the list). If I need to get from A to B and it’s a bit more than just going around the block or a short 10 minute jaunt, Vancouver usually has a safe way to travel on the road infrastructure. Despite my decades of experience, I shudder at the thought of navigating through Tokyo or Taipei by bicycle in the same manner. What the other two cities gives is the permission for you to leisurely ride on the sidewalk. (Sure maybe legally no, but everyone does it). This coupled with really dense neighbourhoods that enable you to get what you need really close by is what makes it work and rank above the Canadian cities, I suspect. However, this doesn’t work for North America because the distances are too large. You really need to be able to travel at “high” speed via the road network. Some of the European winners combine the best of both. Shorter distances and more dedicated bicycle routes intended for commuting, which Tokyo doesn't really have from what I have seen. Couple that with the average driver who is not expecting cyclists to be intermingled with traffic at similar speeds.
Nice video :) That "Copenhagenize index" doesn't take into account how dangerous the city may be for bikers. Especially, Bogota (the capital of my country Colombia) has become extremely dangerous during the last 5 years, it is not safe anymore for bikers as there are a lot of violent thieves. So it is ok to use this index as a reference but after living in Belgium for 5 years, I can tell you that there are way more Belgian cities (not only Antwerp) that can easily be part of this ranking including Brussels and Gent.
I lived in a smaller city and the same understanding of bikes, people, cars, and trains was prevalent there, too. I miss Japan's focus on people working together to make life efficient-and just decent. For example, I miss seeing a 7 year old walking a heavily traveled road not worried about car traffic going by.
Tokyo seems pretty good for cycling based on what ive seen online. And as a Dutch person i have some issues with that index. By name it sounds like its a list of the best cities for bikes, but i think, not just being patriotic, the top 6 of such a list should consist of cities in the Netherlands.
TRAINS! I would think Tokyo would be better for bikes as well. The Netherlands reigns supreme. Cycling where I'm from is a fight for you life. This is not a joke.
Nice video, very accurate! I live in Yokohama for many years now and cycle everywhere. I think (as you stated) most roads have a safe option for pedestrians and cyclist. Of course some are quite dangerous and then I head for the sidewalk and go very slow. For the most part, I think cycling in the Tokyo area is very convenient and fun. It helps to know the roads though. I think the factors for the ranking system are a bit lame. Should be general safety, accessibility, parking and theft rate.
Though there is a marked increase in bike commuting and some efforts to create bike only lanes, Metro Manila is still a dangerous place for bike commuters. Motorcycles tend to use the bike lanes.
We have 1 shared lane here in BKK. Mostly it's used by motorbikes to speed through red lights, or go in against the actual traffic direction. At least it keeps motorbikes off of pedestrian areas.
In 91/92, I'd vent around Earth with my cycle, the time when CPHs cycle-budget was near zero. it was a decade before cycle-infra structure became billion dollar industri . I'm soon 70, have cycled since 6, in CPH, most of the big cities didn have any cycle infra, but as a experienced cyclist I injoyed it, there was hardly any cyclist in N.Y. or S-Fr. but Tokyo was great, I loved it. Our two mega bridges in DK. is not for cycles, Innoshima in Japan is five mega-bridges, in a row, with cycle-paths. Soon after I was in Peking, highway scale cycle infra, being a cycle-drop in cycle-rivers, it was somehow the most complete from a Cycle Logic perspective. Mr. Copenhagenize had the same experience, about same time, but was little scared of the enormous flow. Out of 80 countries, Japan was the most modern.
I was surprised at the insurance issues around cycling to work in Japan! Here in Germany, there is even a tax incentive model for employers to lease out bicycles to their employees (via third-party providers). It's part of the e-bike craze over here because it makes it easier to get one of these expensive e-bikes.
I actually agree with the rating cos a lot of the rules and city planning in Tokyo is obviously making it harder to cycle in Tokyo. For example I’m strongly against the planned strict enforcement of bikes riding on pedestrian walkways including issuing fines starting in 2025. The roads in Tokyo aren’t wide enough, and painting a sign on the current road doesn’t a cycling lane make - but is what they are doing a lot of the time, drivers are impatient so riding on the road feels very unsafe, especially when cars are getting wider and faster.
In the Philippines cities had adopted the bike lanes just 5 years ago during the pandemic. So you can say, it's still in it's infancy stage and we don't know if there are improvements or infrastructures to be made for the humble cyclists. Most of these bike lanes are from the city. People who are cycling out of town and touring the country for hundreds of kilometers need to be aware of their surroundings and must stick to the right side of the road, cause there's no bike lanes there to protect them. Even when there are bike lanes we have to get out of our comfort zone when vehicles are parked inside. Some use it as their own parking spot cause it's right in front of their stores and consider it as part of their property. Nonetheless we still use it when it's free of vehicles.
It feels like a full suspension mountain bike is not allowed in Japan. Not only it's expensive but it also has wide handlebars and loud hubs which may annoy the people on the street or accidentally hitting them with the handlebars. And it has a very high chance that it will get stolen even if it's locked.
Good video! I love biking in Tokyo. The lack of dedicated and separate bike lanes is definitely a minus though compared to many other cities that have improved the cycling infrastructure quite a lot last 10 years or so. I think the biking on sidewalks is a really bad solution. As a cyclist it might be nice but there are constantly near accidents when people are zigzagging between pedestrians at rather high speeds. I’m always a bit surprised at how close to pedestrians many cyclists pedal.
The ranking report not-withstanding, as an avid cyclist I think that the biggest area where cycling infrastructure suffers in Tokyo is appropriate infrastructure for cycling at high speeds. Shared use paths and sidewalks are simply too dangerous to ride on if you are traveling over 20 km/h IMHO. Even if you give pedestrians a lot of space, on the occasion of a crash, you will have no control of your bike or body and you can seriously injure other people. I live in the countryside in Japan and so it's relatively easy to ride long distances at speed simply by choosing roads that are less busy. I was pleasantly surprised, though, when I rode through a fairly large city (Shizuoka) a while ago. Those blue arrows on the road were actually great in that context. It was clear where you should travel as a cyclist. There were no barriers to navigate in complex corners (which is my biggest complaint of separated cycling infrastructure as sometimes found in Europe). Cars respected my right to be in those lanes, expected me to be there and gave me lots of space. And as you mentioned: no parking on the road. I understand that some people are very risk averse when cycling, but I feel like a "one size fits all" approach to cycling infrastructure is not good. Low speed, convenience oriented areas are necessary and probably the highest priority. However, it would be nice to have high speed routes linking those areas. Sharing very high traffic, or very fast roads is not ideal and while I think some risk is acceptable, I'd like to see some secondary roads transformed as shared car/high speed bicycle routes. A good example of this might be along the station in Ueno where the existing "sharrows" are on very dangerous roads and the secondary roads are primarily used by pedestrians with the occasional car. Diverting high speed bike traffic down those streets would be a win, IMHO (though you need to find a was to accommodate the flow of pedestrians at peak times).
I’ve been to Japan several times. I think in general, cycling in Japan is quite good. A few area in Tokyo is not so bike friendly. Only a few. But like you mentioned, train is great….
There's probably a reason for it, but I recall learning (perhaps in one of your videos!) that it's illegal to take your bicycle on a train in Tokyo, unless you can fold it up or put it in a bag for the trip. In the closest large city to me, Melbourne (Australia), you're allowed to take bicycles on trains, and as long as you keep them in a dedicated area in the carriage and out of the way, it's perfectly fine. IMO, I believe that if Tokyo had more allowance for bicycles on trains (such as dedicated on-carriage spaces, etc.), a lot more people would use bicycles for work commutes or longer city trips; a hybrid public transport-personal transport method would no doubt appeal to a lot of people who currently seldom ride (or don't ride at all).
I live in Tokyo and commute daily to university in my bicycle. Cycling is great on the small streets on the neighborhood, you get the best of both the road and pedestrian infrastructure. I used to bring a chain for securing my bicycle at the beginning but theft is so low that I stopped doing that, so far it has been 4 years since I stopped locking my bike😅, and nothing has ever happen.
As an American, I think it's strange that Japan bikes on the sidewalk with people. As I walk, I have to make sure I look behind me to ensure a bike doesn't sneak up on me. That's my only gripe. But it's completely bikeable. You can get anywhere. You can't do that in America. The roads don't have any room for bikes. They don't even have sidewalks where I'm from.
Here in Missouri we can ride on sidewalks, just give proper right-of-way to walking pedestrians, and your cannot do it in a “business district”. Meaning, like in a city, where you’re going to have highly increased foot traffic (eg. downtown Saint Louis).
Depends where in America. But yeah, a lot of the South has bad speed or safety concerns on fiarly narrow roads with no suitable sidewalks often only roadside ditches to, err, ditch to, ...even if there's a few nice bike paths and such, you can't necessarily ride *to* them.
"I have to make sure I look behind me to ensure a bike doesn't sneak up on me" Yeah, I learned that too (look back before moving left or right). I also accidentally caused a collision once: I saw a bike coming and stepped out of its way; old guy next to me stepped back for some reason, putting him in way of the bike. No injury resulted, but oops. It was a particularly narrow path, I think narrowed by construction scaffolding. Massachusetts shares Missouri's "bike on sidewalks outside of business districts", and after a few years of close calls with cars, I used that more and more, along with parks or low-traffic residential streets.
I really hate when content creators randomly use meme's in their videos, especially when it's a full screen meme with audio. I think it's cheap and jarring and annoying. But 15:46 is a perfect use case and execution for a meme! Very nice!
I really wanted to bike in Japan during my visit in June 2024, but it was so hard to find how to rent a bike or get something like rideshare/bixi. It's one of my few regrets of things I wasn't able to do during my visit.
I used to live in Shinjuku and still live in the Tokyo area. As some other residents (and the great video) have said, it's a mixed bag. Not bad, but could be better if there was any motivation to make it so. In major areas like Shinjuku or Ueno, wanting to ride a bike any faster than 10kph is deadly. Sidewalks are too crowded to use, but the roads are 3-4 lanes wide with only "sharrows" to designate that bicycles have a right of way. "Temporary" on street parking is rampant (popping into a convenience store or talking on the phone, or just plain taking a nap for 30 minutes is accepted. And the otherwise omnipresent police seem to be unbothered by it all.) and the chance of getting doored is very high, though I have not been a victim yet thank goodness. Another major issue is the city runs on convenience stores, which are supplied at least 3 times every day by mid-large (2-ton) trucks. These trucks park for well over 20-30 minutes at the side of the road, and they are everywhere, forcing cyclists into aforementioned 3-4 lanes of traffic. Construction is constant too, and so are the associated dump trucks on any of the major trunk roads. Tokyo seems to have no real ambition to reduce car or truck use that I've seen. It just wants to put the elevated highways underground where they ruin the view, but the regular roads either get wider or just renewed. One example of how planners and policy makers think here is maybe Odaiba. Full of 4 lane roads, but because there's space, they tacked on separate bike lanes there. As the video says, bikes are great for going up to 5km, anything over that will probably take you onto a trunk road and all of the above problems. Also, it's horrible to ride between the end of May and end of September, because the heat and humidity just destroys all pleasure from going outdoors. Having said all that, they cycling roads along the big riverbanks are lovely, they do take you to places (Arakawa goes from near Asakusa/Ueno all the way to Kawagoe for example), and riding at night on weekends in the city is very cool because there's much less traffic and Tokyo still looks like it came out of Blade Runner. Great video sir!
Do you have any videos about other cities or small towns where it’s easier to bicycle in Japan someday soon I’m gonna visit again and I enjoy bicycling. used to bicycle in Europe and they often had separate paths such as Germany and the Netherlands
It's not easy to capture cycling friendliness in a simple number. I have cycled through Tokyo and many other Japanese cities, and I agree with you. There are annoyances and occasional dangers, but all in all it's great, despite the lack of infrastructure. Part of it is safety in numbers, bikes are everywhere. Part of it is that drivers are far less homicidal than what I see in Europe. Cycling through Amsterdam is great to, and it's easier to plan a longer route there. But for a hop between two random points not too far apart, I wouldn't say there is much difference. Sometimes Amsterdam will be better, sometimes Tokyo. Cycling the smaller towns and countryside is great in Japan too, in most places. The major exception is the "commercial suburbia" areas with huge shopping centers. Those suck, no matter where in the world you ride. Avoid those, and Japan is a great place for biking.
I've been meaning to make this video for a while, so I'm happy to finally have it out. For a long time I didn't think I could make it because I just didn't know enough about urban design or city planning to figure out how to talk about why I like biking in Tokyo. After seeing the Copenhagenize Index's rankings and seeing how all these other cities ranked similar to Tokyo, I felt more confident that I could at least talk about what I like about Tokyo as well as understand why it doesn't rank so well. If you liked this video, I think you'll like a couple other creators that just made content about Japanese cities and its streets. One is from Not Just Bikes ua-cam.com/video/jlwQ2Y4By0U/v-deo.htmlsi=TH3aNA9UeWNu2oyO and the other by City Beautiful (it's on Nebula only right now) nebula.tv/videos/citybeautiful-tokyo-has-the-best-streets-in-the-world
Looks like no one in Japan wears a helmet either... 😅
Indexes are subjective by nature and should not taken as absolute. It is a collection of data figures taken together. You can do anything with that
the Copenhagenize Index is no different to that. Actually it is quite crap. years ago i looked up how the indicators were measured. And it was total crap. Really a joke . The parameters were set to make Copenhagen look good. Hardly to be taken serious at all .
(Actually a friend of mine lived in CPH, she mentioned that the gov. would set up research that would 'show that Denmark was the happiest country' . Or something like that. Not measure how 'happy Danish people are' . Outcome directed research so to say. That feeling I have with the Copenhagenize Indez as well ).
edti : The insurance exclusion of bike commuting in Japan is really bad ! Cycling seems mostly limited to short neighbourhood rides and there are not good bike paths for medium/long. Yet an amazin 15% uses the bike. that is a lot, for the situation. Do you feel safe along busier streets ? (I would assume, with japanese culture in mind, that cars might be more cautious to peds/bikes than in other countries ...).
Not Just Bikes Jason was in Japan recently. Did you meet ? (he referred to you anyway).
Now why don't you show your children in the videos?
On the one hand, I love that I can ride my bike pretty much anywhere I need to go. Buying a bike soon after moving to Tokyo was one of my best investments. On the other hand, it is very annoying that bicyclists who are on the sidewalk treat pedestrians as obstacles, and cars treat bikes like THEY are obstacles. Cars will purposely cross into the bike lane to try an force you onto the sidewalk and I have heard of some driving instructors encouraging this behavior from their students for "safety."
My reasons to watch this video:
- Because it is educational
- Full of bike riding POV across Tokyo
In rural areas in Japan, almost everyone who can drive, drives. I live in ‘semi-rural’ small town Japan, and it’s a bit of a mix. Cars are still popular, but a decent number of people (including myself) use a bike to get around town. It often ends up being quicker than driving, and with gas prices the way they are it just makes sense. For long distance trips, like between cities, trains are generally the popular choice.
"almost everyone who can drive"
Bike friendliness is still important for those who can't, like kids.
@@mindstalk agree totally. We don’t have many bike lanes, etc. where I live, so to compensate for that, drivers give priority (and lots of space) to cyclists. In the morning there are school kids weaving all over the roads, but I’ve never heard of a serious accident.
I have visited Tokyo with my family for about a month for the last decade and really appreciate the fact that bikes are so integrated into the daily lives of most people in the city. Honestly, I feel like the Copenhagenize Index feels like a Western European view of cycling. It's seems weighted towards physical infrastructure and governmental regulations and advocacy. My experience in Japan is that biking is more accepted by the society and allowances are made fo things like cycling on sidewalks and the fact that you can pretty much bike anywhere. Some specific observations: Traffic calming measures - I feel like the narrow neighborhood streets with their non-grid layout is itself a traffic calming measure. The major streets need some more of this but really it's much more enjoyable riding on the side streets. Cargo bikes - really, the mamachari bikes with multiple seat attachments are themselves cargo bikes.
As always, I found your video informative and thoughtful. Thanks!
100% agree. The Copenhagenize Index doesn't take alternative infrastructure into effect. A very walkable/bikeable village with no explicit bike lanes but which gets only 5 cars a day, and therefore is essentially risk-free for biking, would rank low despite being in practice a great place to bike.
The index weighting is very flawed. For example, just talking about cargo bikes, they're just not needed in Japan for personal use when most stores are within walkable distance and delivery is often an option. Not to mention that kei cars are a much better and still affordable option for those that really need to move cargo. The Copahahen index doesn't take such situations into account so the index scores can be very misleading.
I think you make a very good point. Tokyo seems very much a square peg to the index's round hole - they address the issues in quite a different manner than do western cities, and it seems on the whole to work.
Sums up my feeling as well. Thanks for putting it so clearly.
To me physical infrastructure (and having that organized in efficient routes) is the single most important factor (probably 90% or more) when it comes to bike-friendlyness, everything else is more or less negligable.
Can I just say thanks for the complete linked source list? It was so handy to be able to quickly go look at them, and I've bookmarked quite a few. Top notch thinking of your viewers.
NGL, I thought this vid was gonna be a Collab with Not Just Bikes.
He has a very relevant video that acts as a companion to this one ua-cam.com/video/jlwQ2Y4By0U/v-deo.htmlsi=TH3aNA9UeWNu2oyO
@@LifeWhereImFrom Yes! I _just_ watched that one before watching this video! 🤠 He had a few shout outs to the Life Where I'm From channel too!
NJB and City Beautiful were both recently in Japan. Don’t know if their trips overlapped, but I was hoping that there was going to be a 3-way collab with Life Where I’m From. Even if it doesn’t exist, still nice to see content from the three.
NGL, I find that channel pretentious at times. Not something I've never thought of, watching any of Greg's videos.
thank god its not
Bicycles in Japan are 95% mamachari, which is meant for rides less than 2km, whereas bikes in Europe are used for more longer distances. If you’re going to travel more than 2km in Tokyo, you’re inclined to use the trains/subway. The concept of using bikes among the public is different from that of what people in Europe envision.
This is a very good point (especially regarding big, tight, and old cities like Tokyo) and explains why there's little motivation to change the infrastructure.
I wouldn't say that European countries like the Netherlands are too different. Dutch people also use upright bikes for short distances and trains for longer ones.
Its not necessarily just that, its that japan as a whole is so absurdly hostile towards bikes just on an infrastructure basis that even if you wanted to, its just not a great idea. Too many close calls
I'm no expert either and only experience other cities' bicycle infrastructure vicariously through UA-camrs, but it does seem to me that Tokyo might be ranked lower because the study comes from a more de-suburbanizing Western perspective. The expectation is that many cities have been too car-centric for decades and need to bring bicycling in from the margins, whereas in Tokyo, bicycling has already been a more common fixture of daily life and city planning. It doesn't have as many of the exciting new additions to improve bicycle infrastructure like we see in other cities, but that's because so many neighborhoods are already so dense and more human scale that they're organically bicycle friendly. Narrow streets and densely populated neighborhoods are basically de facto traffic-calming measures.
@@imacg5anything European is considered “western”.
@@imacg5 Are you suggesting the Copenhagenize Index, where Coppenhagen takes first place could be biased? 😱🤣
It seems they're losing some points for lack of progress for sure, which does speak to a high starting point in terms of bike riders. However, don't ignore the problems pointed out in this video, cycling long distance in Tokyo is seriously suboptimal, and that's because of the total lack of dedicated bike infrastructure. Tokyo lucks into a decent local biking experience because of its urban design, but it's larger roads are actively hostile to cyclists, and it's impossible to navigate across the city without a good portion of your ride taking those bigger roads.
@@scruvydom Cycling long distance anywhere is suboptimal (assuming the trip has a practical rather than recreational purpose), even with dedicated bike infrastructure. Heck, medium distance is a challenge. The average person would take ~45 minutes to bike ten miles and be a sweaty, exhausted mess at the end. (Strava data has the average user's speed at ~14 mph, and this is for people serious enough about their cycling that they track their rides.)
Tokyo is perfectly well designed for practical use bicycling (bike to station & take train to work; bike to grocery store; bike kids to/from school; etc.), but not very good for recreational cyclists who want to put in 25+ miles on a ride.
agreed. it isn't as robust because what exists now is basically enough.
In regards to company commute, a lot of companies pay for your commute. I once worked for 3 months at a bread factory in Japan. When i got hired, I fill out all the information like where i live and emergency contacts ( as any company normally would ) In the end, they calculated my bus fair based on where i lived. Which was about 3.00 dollars a day round trip. So I got an extra 3.00 dollars a day. But what I and most people do if you live somewhat close to where you work is you take your bike and commute to work. I saved an extra 3 dollars a day, which i pretty much used up buying cold drinks at the vending machine on hot days. I would only take the bus if it was raining or feeling lazy.
They have to pay because of how the insurance is integrated. It's also why most Japanese companies prohibit commuting using your own car, so you have no choice but commute the always packed buses and trains because everyone else also has to take them.
What were the bus frequencies like? The ones in Osaka seemed terrible (30 minutes), but Osaka is a train-heavy city. The tourist circulator in Nara was great (4 minutes), but I don't know if the other buses there are like that.
@@mindstalk
It depends on many factors like where the bus stop is located and where the bus is headed, the time of the day, the day of the week, etc. Bus routes are often short too, so it may take several bus transfers to go anywhere.
In the morning there's a bus every 10 minutes or so. But in the evening there's like only 1 per hour. Buses are often late 3-5 minutes. Which makes it hard to plan your commute, especially if you then need to make it in time to the train station to take a Rapid train to another city, like in my current situation. Arrive one minute late and you have to either take the slower Local train or wait for another Rapid.
I'm not riding a bike in Osaka. But walking 15-20 minutes to the station in this heat (or a combination of heat + rain) every time there's no bus is a real pain. Especially when you have to commute wearing a suit and business shoes.
The company pays only the cheapest route possible from A to B, regardless of which route you actually took to commute to work.
@@HaohmaruHL An additional point is that companies do (or certainly did) get a tax break for the money they spend on "commuter fees". They can write the expense off on their taxes so it's seen as a win-win.
I love your videos on cycling in Japan, especially. I wish we had a bike infrastructure here, in eastern Wa., but sadly we don't.
Love all your biking videos. Beautiful scenery!
There are very few separated bike/multi-use paths in Okinawa. Those that exist generally don't lead anywhere, but are provided for exercise and nice views - kind of like stretched out parks. Despite the lack of functionality, these places almost always have lots of pedestrians, cyclists, and tourists enjoying them.
The rest of urban Okinawa is a car-centric hellscape, where it is unpleasant and unsafe to bike or walk. There is almost no public transportation. Local residents are forced to drive everywhere, and those that can't are trapped at home. This naturally beautiful subtropical island is increasingly overrun with traffic, parking lots, and ever-widening roads. A paved paradise indeed.
What 27 years of US rule does to a Japanese city. 😔
@@mfaizsyahmi That's certainly what started it, but that ended 52 years ago. Since then, the prefectural government has received TONS of money from the central government in exchange for hosting U.S. bases. What do they use the money for? Complaining about U.S. bases and building boondoggle projects.
Okinawa remains among the poorest, most poorly educated prefectures in the nation. Not having a decent transportation system hurts not only its citizens, but also cripples its most important industry - tourism. It's inexcusable.
@@OfTheGapstbf complaining about the US bases is kind of fair when they r*ped a small girl a while back
man this channel has been on my top favourite ones since years ago now... Just wanted to share a thought: It makes me incredibly happy to see you've found your piece of heaven, family and life in such a cool place. It has its challenges, of course, but it seems like a much nicer life than ours here in Europe or North America
A straightforward and informative video makes a nice change from a lot of what I see on UA-cam
Seeing those stairs with a ramp for your bike was genius. Simple but effective!
pushing a mamachari up those at a 90 degree angle sucks tho lol
@@enishigrudge I'll bet. First time seeing one wish they were a thing in the us (among a million other things)
@@enishigrudge well, most moms do it! ba-dum-tsu!
For a bike with a couple of kids on it, I'd want to have a motor and a "walk mode" to assist getting up that ramp though.
From a UK perspective, such a ramp would probably be decried as an accessibility issue as well. But I guess Tokyo is excellent for people with mobility issues more generally, because public transport is everywhere and from what I can tell, stations are very good in terms of accessibility (and I would bet that the lifts are much more reliable than here).
@liamness correct. Tbh I think wide shared use paths on arterials and shared narrow streets elsewhere in the city would be the ideal
Where I live in California has dedicated bike lanes on every major road but everyone rides on the sidewalk due to the 50MPH speed limit. Back in the 90's I worked for Applied Materials and later for IBM in Silicon Valley, both companies provided free public transit passes and the local transit service let you take your bike on any bus or light rail train (if there was room.) It was great having multiple options for commuting. I got a car eventually simply because it took a minimum of an hour to commute by bike but only 15-30 minutes by car.
Wow, and I thought we had it bad here in BC with 50 km/h usually being the default. I would not want to ride beside 50 mph at all
I’m also in California, Los Angeles specifically and our transportation infrastructure is basically terrible. It is designed for cars mainly. The society has been indoctrinated to have an identity connected to the car they drive. Although driving in the USA is a privilege most drivers believe it is their right and that other modes of transportation are a hindrance to their fantasy rights.
I live in Strasbourg and it doesn't deserve high ranking, and especially not 6th place.
Moved here about a year ago and rarely used my bike. Not only theft is a big problem, but there's no dedicated cycling infrastructure. You're expected to cycle on the street together with cars, which is VERY unsafe. Few times I tried, I got honked at multiple times and nearly died.
I can't help but compare it to my hometown (Łódź in Poland), where the entire city was covered with dedicated cycling paths... which is much better than Strasbourg when it comes to cycling. I used to take a bike or public transport to get to school. Here I'm always taking a tram + bus to get to the office (despite the fact it takes longer), as I don't feel safe going to the office by bike.
Strasbourg has quite a lot of dedicated and separated cycling infrastructure. Notably along several water channels and tram lanes as well as a few of the bus routes that get a lot of traffic. Most of that infrastructure isn't even new, so I am not even sure why it improved so much in the rankings. What's also great about bike routes in Strasbourg, is that they are mostly continuous. You can go from a surrounding village through Strasbourg to a different village on the other side, without ever leaving the dedicated bike lane (physically separated from the cars) except for crossings. There are even two car-less bridges across the river to Germany, though the older one is a hassle to drive across and a bit tight for mixed usage with people going by foot.
Bike theft and bike part theft is a serious issue though, and I don't trust French drivers.
Because its European City .. it automatically get bonus point.
Oh wow, I can't think of a more important priority than rider SAFETY.
How terrible to falsely rank a city just due to politics.
Can you imagine another large city equal to the size of Tokyo being safe enough for little children, parents w/ children biking daily?
And the issue of theft, how appalling! Theft is a big issue in the USA, organized crime regularly steal bikes from residences here.
Governments should prioritize personal character instead of charades.
@cloudsmith7803 not until our constitution is restored, it's been 60 years of this already
Your videos are so relaxing. I miss Tokyo and Yokohama ❤
Two things I noticed that have changed in the last 20 years: bike parking has become cumbersome. Most places forbid parking, police is quick to collect your bike, you need to use paid parking structures which again shaves off time (and a bit of money), the other is that legally bikes are not allowed to use sidewalks, unless indicated, but the majority still do, because they are afraid to share the road with cars.
YOu didn't cover the 'no need to be cool' factor. A bike is just a mode of transport, nobody cares what brand it is or what it looks like. I remember a story of my young cousin in my hometown in Australia. I asked why she didn't ride to school. Her words....'it's not cool'. I laughed at people making their lives harder for the sake of fashion. Personally, I'm 100% function over fashion. I love my bike and its basket. Good vid
No, no, she is right. "It's not cool," and people who are "not cool" get bullied. She's just looking out for her own wellbeing.
Aussie aussie aussie oi oi oi
I would say it's a different matter with school children.
@xmaslieder I wouldn't
Live in Kichijoji and am a rollerblader. I couldn't think of a better place to skate with the majority of this massive city being relatively car free and having great pavement.
It's been a treat this weekend seeing all the videos about Japan from the urbanist creators!
Good analysis, Greg! We've always loved your bike videos, and we've seen some other channels (like Not Just Bikes and City Berautiful, as you mention) where the criteria for "bike friendliness" are discussed. For instance, "Right Turn on Red" is great for motorists but deadly for cyclists. I didn't understand this linkage before so now I am persuaded that banning "Right Turn on Red" is the logical thing to do (in Japan it would be "Left Turn on Red").
I loved biking in Tokyo and had one of the best time ever. Biking here in London is fine but it's a bit annoying sometimes given the bumpy roads and the fear of theft leaving the bike infront of grocery store.
Always fun to see the videos out in the wild :)
Brought my brompton folding bike with me on a recent trip. loved the mobility and freedom. was even able to explore the kamakura and enoshima seaside after taking my bike on th train. I felt like I could go anywhere with endless possibilities.
Ah! ☝️ fellow smart traveler!
For me living in Yokohama since several years, I kind of lost interest in using my bike, which I have been using in Germany almost on daily basis. One reason is that the distances for me are much higher and it’s really a pain that you cannot take your bike on a train, which is possible for almost every train in Germany. I know there are exceptions, if you can fold your bike, but mine isn’t such kind of. Furthermore lot of areas are quite crowded, which makes it dangerous for me and the other pedestrians to share the same area. On the roads I don’t feel comfortable as I feel Japanese are not used to “fast bicycle”, which have speeds of 30kph+, rather than used to slower commuter, which they can overtake easily/quickly. But overall riding your bike near a river, is really a huge please especially during autumn or spring season.
Wow, what a great video with epic views. This makes me want to cycle around Tokyo so much. Thanks.
Ngl I find it really funny that copenhagen ranks itself so highly as a biking city. Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of bikes 'round here (I live in copenhagen), but it could be quite a lot better than it is. The whole idea of copenhagen being the judge of bike-friendliness, while just "coincidentially" ranking itself the highest on the list, seems suspicious to me (because I do think it overblows it's bike-friendliness quite significantly).
One of the simplest descriptors of this, is the amount of seperated bicycle lanes. Copenhagen has 23kms of those across the city, whereas amsterdam has ~965km of seperated bicycle lanes. The idea that Copenhagen is the most bike friendly city is (in my honest opinion as someone who has biked a lot in copenhagen), absurd.
Not just bikes has a good video on that index imo
Anyone could set the "points" to whatever they wanted based on their own beliefs/theories and create whatever "rankings" they wanted.
@@illiiilli24601 Ooh! UA-cam suppresses links, but can you point to the video title or something?
@@mindstalk the title of the video is Copenhagen is great... But it's not Amsterdam
It's not directly about the index, but does address it appropriately imo
@@illiiilli24601 Thanks! I see in my journal I did watch it a few years ago.
Thanks for these cozy videos, keep it up!
this is a cool chill video, exactly what i needed right now
Haven't biked in Japan myself, but Tokyo mostly seems fine to me, from what I've seen. Particularly the small streets, but I also find the wide sidewalks fine. The most troublesome thing definitely seems to be the big busy roads with small sidewalks where you'd mostly be on the road. That doesn't seem super safe. I've always lived in smaller cities in Denmark, which tend to have separated bike paths on busier streets and roads, or at least a marked part of the streets that you can mostly count on drivers not to cross onto (though there are exceptions). Definitely feels like Tokyo could take a lane or two from some of those really wide roads to make bike paths and/or extend the sidewalks.
Can we also mention how beneficial cycling to work is for your mental and physical health? I almost always cycle everywhere up until 10-15km and when I do my morning commute by bike I feel rejuvenated and a lot more energised. The few times I take public transport in the morning I often feel groggy and less cheerful in general.
I tried in Tokyo, and the air polution made me rethink about the healthy part xD
semi-unrelated but I always watch in awe at how calm and peaceful Tokyo's neighborhood streets are. theyre so quiet and welcoming to people, it makes me smile with a tad bit of envy as an American
this is particularly helpful for us folks who want to cycle Tokyo on their holiday. Specially extra handy in escaping overtourism lately. Thank you Greg! I'd be riding much safer this November :)
Thank you for showing the various aspects of bicycling in Tokyo! It looks a lot better than I expected from such a busy city.
I have really been enjoying your video's this year, I hope every one else has had as positive opinion as I have had :D
for the bikes, I wish my city/contry looked and felt as safe as this video makes Tokyo look. even with its low rating it appears to be fairly safe. where I am each time I ride the bike, that is not on a dedicated bike/park path, I am scared that at any moment a car will hit me on the street, or will blindly pull out of a parking lot driveway with out even considering a bike. I have nearly been hit several times and a friend has been hit a few times. its scary here in the US. :(
@15:00 , Greg, thank you for explaining as to why people cannot cycle to work. It’s quite annoying (I can’t stand tight or crowded places, will faint) to see people packed like sardines in a train & was wondering why they wouldn’t bike to work. Well, this video answers it.
Fellow Tokyo cyclist here, really happy to see some places I know pop up here ^^
It's nice to see such a balanced take on things too, and a lot of things you mentioned resonated with me. I'm excited to see what more bike infrastructure actually gets built before the end of the decade! Fingers crossed it's not more 'shareows'.
I have been living and biking in Tokyo for two years and it's a mixed bag. The "Tokyo metropolitan area" is vast and encompasses lots of terrain, infrastructure and challenges. For me it ranks higher than US cities I have biked in (and way higher than Okinawa where i lived for 4 years) but there are certainly better places to cycle in Europe. Overall I enjoy biking here and am grateful for all of the provisions for bikes that exist!
Here in Germany I do most things on foot or by bus or tram. I have a bike that I sometimes use for grocery stores further away. Before I moved to a bigger city, I lived in a rural area with bad public transport connections and no grocery store reachable on foot. I used my bike way more then than I do here now.
I am in New York City where large scale bike share has been a game changer. There’s also been a lot of bike infrastructure built in the last few years and more to come. That said, it can be a terrifying place to ride a bike and several bicyclists are killed every year. A significant problem is trucks and cars that do not use care and violate traffic laws. In my NYC neighborhood alone there has been about 5 riders killed over just a few years. All involved trucks and cars breaking the law by speeding, not checking while turning, and other such behavior. Parking in protected bike lanes, even those with a cement barrier, continues to be a problem.
Question: Are there statistics on bicyclists death and serious injury in Tokyo?
The lack of dedicated lanes is probably one of the huge reason. Not everyone feels safe on the pavement.
Especially that weaving when there is a parked car.
@@YoJesusMorales that's only a problem on main large streets where cars are going high speeds. the smaller streets cars are going the same speed as bikes.
@@elimarshall1497 That is certainly not my experience here in Osaka.
@@elimarshall1497i still dont feel safe around cars
Very good summation of the situation for cycling. I have commuted to work from the Tama River area to inner Tokyo since 1991, about 17 kilometers one way. Have had maybe 4 accidents, nothig serious. Car drivers back then were not very conscience for cyclists, but have improved a lot in the last 10 years. I very rarely use the sidewalks and in traffic will stick out my arm for signaling. Many cyclists need to be more concerned when riding up from behind pedistrians. Safety is not their number one concern.
Good informative report. Thank you.
Thanks for this very comprehensive video!
On the topic of elevated highways, there are probably also many arguments against them, as they are much more expensive for the city/state finances. They still bring a lot (as much) of air pollution, and are only marginally less noisy (? In fact I'm unsure if this has been measured), and they look hideous (especially in some areas such as the Nihonbashi that you featured in your video). In some rare cases, they have something nice under them, but most of the time it is either a river that needs seeing the sun a bit more, or another highway/road at ground level.
For work commute, yes, of course the train system in Tokyo is super nice and the go-to solution. While trains are efficient at moving people, they are emitting quite a lot of CO2 (indirectly) in Japan (still much less than cars per passenger of course), and they do not prevent sedentary-related health issues (while not very obvious, it is a raising issue in Japan/Tokyo). I think the city would greatly benefit from having more free-parking options for bicycles, better policies for companies to allow employees to commute by bike, as well as more ambition in developing bike lanes that connect major hubs (work/shops/residential). Maybe a frivolous argument that can be added to this, is that some people do not like/stand trains, and for those it would be good to have another option to commute than trains (or car for the very wealthy). And this would, in turn, relieve (marginally) some trains from being over-crowded, which could then make them more appealing? (Tough it seems the situation is not as bad as what is once used to be in that regard)
Electric trains are quite CO2-efficient, and most people simply are not going to bike the distances efficiently covered by trains. As for sedentary issue... you walk to the train, and if it's crowded, stand as well.
"they are emitting quite a lot of CO2 (indirectly) in Japan (still much less than cars per passenger of course), and they do not prevent sedentary-related health issues (while not very obvious, it is a raising issue in Japan/Tokyo)"
Yeah electric train emitting quite a lot of CO2 but not human sweating and have to have hot shower after commuting and I wonder why Japanese considered as the healthiest people in the world and life the longest. Japaneses obesity rate at 3.6 % while Denmark 18.4 % and Netherlands as 17% ? this impossible considering you say they just stand doing nothing.
Interesting vid thanks! Tokyo (Japan in general) is great for getting around your local neighborhood by bike as you said. I like to go long and fast on my road bike so Tokyo would suck for me (the law wants you to keep left on the road but then there's so many cars temporarily parked like you said so you end up weaving in and out of traffic). It's fine in the countryside where I am now though xD
better than 98% of cities in the US atleast. as someone who biked over 15km in Tokyo before and in other cities around japan I can definitely say that Japan overall is very bicycle friendly and I love that you can bike through sidewalks in most places.
With just a bicycle and train commute you can access over 90% of all the areas in central Tokyo with ease. The rental bikes are ubiquitous and I find it much more fun to tour tokyo by bike than by walking
This is a fantastic intro to what cycling is like in Japan. How does someone take deep dives into the details without boring a mainstream audience? Maybe the details are not so important for mainstream viewers? What subcultures within cycling are in Japan? How many kinds of people use the infamous mamachari bikes? Is Kirin just a beer or is it a bike race? Are there any group bicycle camping excursions in Japan? How do the many mountains affect rural areas and cycling there?
I currently live in Melbourne, Aus. Here cycling is almost non-existent, but there is some dedicated cycling paths and infrastructure in inner suburbs and hopefully they are building more. In my home city of Christchurch, NZ I guess I just love cycling there, ample of dedicated cycling paths and public bathrooms scattered all around the city the best part is parks all around the city, I so much miss that. I guess it's not on the Copenhagen index because we are tiny when compared to mega-cities like Tokyo but to be honest that is what I love about Christchurch that it is small and friendly.
I live in the Greater Buenos Aires area, in Argentina. It's free-fire for everyone and anyone here. Most folks don't use helmets. Most drivers think they're racing an F1 Grand Prix, motorcyclists think they're Valentino Rossi and bikers that they're Lance Armstrong. Stopped cycling a long time ago because of that. Oh, right. Bus drivers are downright mental, too. Pedestrians are the most endangered, though. Don't need a broken bone or my brains splattered on the ground because someone was in a hurry.
Downtown Buenos Aires has bike lanes, but they're a bit of a joke. Extremely narrow and usually using part of the canted gutter next to the sidewalk curve.
Great video, Greg. All in all, one could see Tokyo doing more for cyclists in the grand scheme of things. But they have an ample variety of pathways as well and people will use them.
Cheers.
You should see my City Bucharest - Romania, Kids under 14 aren't allowed by law to cycle on the streets, Cycling on the sidewalks is prohibited (They say but everyone cycles there) and the speed limit of motorvechicles on a 2 lane street is 50km/h tho people tend to drive over 70km/h on boulevard speed limit goes up to 70km/h tho most of people when the road is clear tend to go over 90km/h
On highways speed is 90 on the 1st lane, people drive 120, 2nd lane is 120, people will drive 150, 3rd lane 150 people think its the German Autobahn and drive as fast as their car can go
I really enjoyed your personal reflection about biking in your neighborhood in Tokyo. I live in Denmark, where the infrastructure for biking is really good. However, I don’t use as much. I feel it requires certain focus to use the bike during the rush hours. People can go really fast in the bike lanes. This is positive for an efficient commute. But I have also seen some scary accidents. My personal choice is walking around the neighborhood and commuting by public transport.
WELCOME BACK!!!!!
In Osaka (at least in the shitamachi where we are) the main street sidewalks are almost all marked as shared bike/pedestrian... and the bikes don't really yield to pedestrians much in my experience! Keeping right when you're walking usually keeps you pretty safe, though.
Ah, the Copenhagenize index, created by Copenhagen.
@05:55 It's always pedestrians and cyclists who have to share the small spaces :/ I see in most of your footage that most curbs have a gentle slope, which allows cyclists to hop on the pavement in case of a parked car
@08:20 Ginormous bike parking facilities near train stations are such a gift.
It's so weird, they're not doing much on the main roads but residential areas look like they're an absolute delight to ride in because of their layout. Also there seems to be a lot of tolerance regarding pavements and 'wild' parking. And at the same time you've got these amazing parking facilities and ramps all across the city...
Yeah, I thought everyone knew it was essentially pro-Danish propaganda. The metrics are selected in order for Copenhagen to come out on top, e.g. the population has to be at least 600 thousand. Copenhagen is 602 thousand, conveniently omitting several Dutch cities that would easily beat Copenhagen.
A huge difference, which those studies will miss, is how much safer and easier it is to park your bike in Japan.
A lot of the places I parked my bike at had guards. At least the ones I used next to the university and train stations. The smaller places also had some decent places to leave my bike at. The key thing is, I never felt fear over my bike getting stolen or damaged, hell I even forgot to lock it outside a store once for 40 minutes and no one touched it. The only people who will take your bike is the city if you park it wrong in a high traffic area.
The reports are also missing the very important river paths that almost work like a bike highway through a city. Only the subway can match the speed at which you can get from A to B if you utilize the river roads effectively on a bike.
I'm from Costa Rica, a considerably small country with loads of beautiful places to go. Besides almost everyone living in an area of about 20km square, cycling is a nightmare and even not allowed in many roads. I Hope to see more bike lanes in the next years now that the culture of cycling is taking over.
Great video again! Genuine query: does the Japanese summer deter people from biking?
At least in Singapore, our high temperature and humidity all year round is a real problem. Many would choose to cycle only in the early mornings or late evenings, and even so, the crazy humidity means you definitely will sweat profusely after a few minutes. The rare few that do cycle to work do so only if their office has showers for them to change out.
I feel I still saw tons of biking when I suffered through August in Osaka. I wasn't paying that much attention to it, though.
Note, though, that around 3/4 of bike trips are under 4 km, and many of them are under 2 km. Lots of people don't have cars, and driving short trips is inconvenient anyway. So these are trips where if you weren't biking, you'd be _walking_ in that humid heat. Would you rather walk 10 minutes to the supermarket, or bike?
@@mindstalk The answer is yes to @goldkwi , and yes to @mindstalk . Good explanation. The heat is brutal, but noone really rides far or fast enough to break much of a sweat. At least not more than they'd get by walking.
If people walk in Japanese summer, why wouldn't they cycle? You can put just as much/little effort into either mode of transport.
Very interesting. Thank you. I lived in Tokyo from 1978-85 and often did the 10km commute from my home near Asagaya to Yotsuya by bike. It always felt quite safe, as I dodged onto sidewalks where necessary, and given that I had a 12 minute walk to the station, it took about the same time as commuting by train. My employer knew I was riding to work but never mentioned insurance issues, so maybe worker insurance didn't exist back then. Since then have ridden from time to time on return visits to Tokyo, and it still feels reasonably safe, but not as much as before due to increased car traffic. I have also had a couple of near misses with other cyclists looking at their phones while riding. However, it's still a hell of a lot safer than trying to ride here in cyclist hating Australia
Thanks for the interesting video!
Biking in Tokyo is very good. Better than most cities in New Zealand. Christchurch is probably the best. We visit family in Tokyo from time to time and riding bikes with our Grandchildren is a lot of fun and very safe. Love your channel, thanks Greg and team.
I'm surprised at the relatively low ranking of Tokyo. But I'm not a cyclist...I haven't owned a bike in decades living a car centric/dependent Canadian city. However, on my first trip to Japan I was completely floored at how bikes and pedestrians seemed to integrate together on shared side walks along the busier roads. I walked every where in Tokyo and I didn't feel any issue with sharing the quieter streets or the side walks with bikes.
In fact, I was so impressed that I decided to rent a bike and toured around the city that way and had so much fun doing it. And from that experience and subsequent other trips doing the same, I agree with you...I think biking around Tokyo is pretty great. Though, I absolutely love the public transit system there as well :)
I was in Tokyo and Vancouver last year, and Montreal last month. They certainly all have pros and cons when it comes to biking culture/infrastructure. And there's a lot to unpack from the country comparison tool. Some might see Tokyo's drop from 5th to 16th as cause for alarm, but I see that more as the other cities gaining ground as Tokyo doesn't keep up, and less that Tokyo is slipping. That Tokyo slipped from 5th to 12 before falling off the Top 20 entirely, then rocketing back to 9th before slipping to 16th again shows that it seems like they are trying *something* and aren't entirely stagnant in their efforts for biking. But as you pointed out, there seems to be a sweet spot for when choosing a bike makes the most sense; too short of a trip and you're better off just walking (and thus leaving the hassle of locking up or having the bike stolen at home), or too far and you're better off just taking a train. Montreal on the other hand started at 7th and gradually fell to 20th for two consecutive rankings which slows a large decline and only a slow climb back. And Vancouver only cracked the Top 20 for the first time in 2019, which strikes me as odd given how they were pushing bike infrastructure for years if not decades and the Burrard Street Bridge bike lane is (or at least was) the busiest bike lane in North America. Edmonton is trying, but they're still very much beholden to the motorist crowd; as is the case for most prairie cities that have succumbed to urban sprawl and have grown out faster than they've grown up over the years.
I live in Tokyo and regularly use my bike for trips of up to 70km. Having previously only lived in major US cities, I consider Tokyo an amazing city for cycling. I recognize there are things that can make it better for individuals like me who travel further than average across the city, but I think for most people just crossing their local neighborhood it's great.
I've primarily cycled in and around Utrecht over the past 10-15 years so I'm spoiled, but what stressed me out about cycling in Kanazawa and Kyoto (and would stress me out about cycling in Tokyo) is having to negotiate for space with pedestrians on sidewalks. They're often busy and I felt quite insecure about how close I could get to people and if it was okay to ring my bell and make them step aside. I wonder what the rankings are based on exactly though - back to the video!
Regio Rotterdam hier! ik denk dat we in Nederland allemaal wel verwend zijn met hoe alles voor de fietser ingericht is. Ik ga volgend jaar, voor het eerst naar Japan, en was erg benieuwd wat nou de stoepfietsetiquette is. ?Greg? (de presentator iig) zegt dat je dus gewoon op de stoep kan fietsen - tenzij anders aangegeven - maar dat de voetganger voorrang heeft. dit is ook hoe jij het ervaarde? Ik vermoed dat japanners met het belletje rinkelen niet zo op prijs zullen stellen, of was dat voor jou niet zo?
I'm from Montreal, and I visited Japan last year. And although I didn't get to bike as much, I do feel conflicted. Biking in Montreal is fairly safe because of the recent infrastructure. But once you get outside those bike lanes, it can be quite challenging. In Japan, initially you would think it would feel intimidating, but I think it's the space of the streets and general awareness of people that somehow makes it quite easy to bike around in Tokyo. And like mentioned in the video, biking is just efficient with what you need to do.
You also won't get to the store faster by car if there's nowhere adjacent to park your car. I didn't see car parking by your store, and of the four markets near me when I lived in Osaka, the closest car parking was a paid garage _adjacent_ to Tennouji station... with the markets in the basement of the station. So you're walking a few minutes anyway. Vs. abundant and free or very cheap bike parking right by the entrance of the non-train station markets, and outside Tennouji.
As for the video points: yeah! across the board. Living in Osaka and seeing its 25% bike mode share showed me that the Dutch bike paths aren't vital. What's vital is separation from fast cars, done by slow shared streets (both countries), or separation on fast roads via dedicated path (Dutch) or multi-use wide sidewalk (Japan, as you highlight.) People are happy to bike as long as they're not scared of being run down.
I was tickled to see the MITT chart of fastest travel times. The blogger kchoze had made similar graphs, to understand by bus service is terrible in major Japanese cities (answer: it's squeezed out by walking, biking and trains; bus is almost never the fastest mode, unless maybe you can't walk far due to age or something.) Never knew there was an official version!
Japan looks awesome to cycle.
As a Montreal lifetime cyclist who's biked in many different city's and just recently visited Tokyo.... I absolutely loved biking there. The local grandma's and the day to day but also the faster big action which traverses neighborhoods:Tokyo drivers are very conscious of bikes. Tokyo deserves to be much higher on the list, they may lack western type bike infrastructure, but cycling as part of the culture is.much further evolved than certainly anywhere in North America.
I’ve been to a few of those places. Which city would I rather commute in? Vancouver beats Tokyo & Taipei easily. (Of course, most USA cities I’ve been to aren’t even close to being on the list). If I need to get from A to B and it’s a bit more than just going around the block or a short 10 minute jaunt, Vancouver usually has a safe way to travel on the road infrastructure.
Despite my decades of experience, I shudder at the thought of navigating through Tokyo or Taipei by bicycle in the same manner. What the other two cities gives is the permission for you to leisurely ride on the sidewalk. (Sure maybe legally no, but everyone does it). This coupled with really dense neighbourhoods that enable you to get what you need really close by is what makes it work and rank above the Canadian cities, I suspect.
However, this doesn’t work for North America because the distances are too large. You really need to be able to travel at “high” speed via the road network.
Some of the European winners combine the best of both. Shorter distances and more dedicated bicycle routes intended for commuting, which Tokyo doesn't really have from what I have seen. Couple that with the average driver who is not expecting cyclists to be intermingled with traffic at similar speeds.
Nice video :)
That "Copenhagenize index" doesn't take into account how dangerous the city may be for bikers. Especially, Bogota (the capital of my country Colombia) has become extremely dangerous during the last 5 years, it is not safe anymore for bikers as there are a lot of violent thieves.
So it is ok to use this index as a reference but after living in Belgium for 5 years, I can tell you that there are way more Belgian cities (not only Antwerp) that can easily be part of this ranking including Brussels and Gent.
I lived in a smaller city and the same understanding of bikes, people, cars, and trains was prevalent there, too. I miss Japan's focus on people working together to make life efficient-and just decent. For example, I miss seeing a 7 year old walking a heavily traveled road not worried about car traffic going by.
VERY VERY great video representing all the goods and the not so goods, thank you!
Tokyo seems pretty good for cycling based on what ive seen online. And as a Dutch person i have some issues with that index. By name it sounds like its a list of the best cities for bikes, but i think, not just being patriotic, the top 6 of such a list should consist of cities in the Netherlands.
TRAINS!
I would think Tokyo would be better for bikes as well. The Netherlands reigns supreme.
Cycling where I'm from is a fight for you life. This is not a joke.
Nice video, very accurate! I live in Yokohama for many years now and cycle everywhere. I think (as you stated) most roads have a safe option for pedestrians and cyclist. Of course some are quite dangerous and then I head for the sidewalk and go very slow. For the most part, I think cycling in the Tokyo area is very convenient and fun. It helps to know the roads though. I think the factors for the ranking system are a bit lame. Should be general safety, accessibility, parking and theft rate.
Though there is a marked increase in bike commuting and some efforts to create bike only lanes, Metro Manila is still a dangerous place for bike commuters. Motorcycles tend to use the bike lanes.
We have 1 shared lane here in BKK. Mostly it's used by motorbikes to speed through red lights, or go in against the actual traffic direction. At least it keeps motorbikes off of pedestrian areas.
In 91/92, I'd vent around Earth with my cycle,
the time when CPHs cycle-budget was near zero.
it was a decade before cycle-infra structure became
billion dollar industri .
I'm soon 70, have cycled since 6, in CPH, most of the
big cities didn have any cycle infra, but as a experienced cyclist
I injoyed it, there was hardly any cyclist in N.Y. or S-Fr. but Tokyo
was great, I loved it.
Our two mega bridges in DK. is not for cycles, Innoshima in Japan
is five mega-bridges, in a row, with cycle-paths.
Soon after I was in Peking, highway scale cycle infra, being
a cycle-drop in cycle-rivers, it was somehow the most complete
from a Cycle Logic perspective. Mr. Copenhagenize
had the same experience, about same time, but was little scared
of the enormous flow.
Out of 80 countries, Japan was the most modern.
I was surprised at the insurance issues around cycling to work in Japan! Here in Germany, there is even a tax incentive model for employers to lease out bicycles to their employees (via third-party providers). It's part of the e-bike craze over here because it makes it easier to get one of these expensive e-bikes.
I actually agree with the rating cos a lot of the rules and city planning in Tokyo is obviously making it harder to cycle in Tokyo. For example I’m strongly against the planned strict enforcement of bikes riding on pedestrian walkways including issuing fines starting in 2025. The roads in Tokyo aren’t wide enough, and painting a sign on the current road doesn’t a cycling lane make - but is what they are doing a lot of the time, drivers are impatient so riding on the road feels very unsafe, especially when cars are getting wider and faster.
In the Philippines cities had adopted the bike lanes just 5 years ago during the pandemic. So you can say, it's still in it's infancy stage and we don't know if there are improvements or infrastructures to be made for the humble cyclists. Most of these bike lanes are from the city. People who are cycling out of town and touring the country for hundreds of kilometers need to be aware of their surroundings and must stick to the right side of the road, cause there's no bike lanes there to protect them. Even when there are bike lanes we have to get out of our comfort zone when vehicles are parked inside. Some use it as their own parking spot cause it's right in front of their stores and consider it as part of their property. Nonetheless we still use it when it's free of vehicles.
It feels like a full suspension mountain bike is not allowed in Japan. Not only it's expensive but it also has wide handlebars and loud hubs which may annoy the people on the street or accidentally hitting them with the handlebars. And it has a very high chance that it will get stolen even if it's locked.
Great video, very relaxing despite listing the issues ... Florida is eons behind!
Good video! I love biking in Tokyo.
The lack of dedicated and separate bike lanes is definitely a minus though compared to many other cities that have improved the cycling infrastructure quite a lot last 10 years or so. I think the biking on sidewalks is a really bad solution. As a cyclist it might be nice but there are constantly near accidents when people are zigzagging between pedestrians at rather high speeds. I’m always a bit surprised at how close to pedestrians many cyclists pedal.
The ranking report not-withstanding, as an avid cyclist I think that the biggest area where cycling infrastructure suffers in Tokyo is appropriate infrastructure for cycling at high speeds. Shared use paths and sidewalks are simply too dangerous to ride on if you are traveling over 20 km/h IMHO. Even if you give pedestrians a lot of space, on the occasion of a crash, you will have no control of your bike or body and you can seriously injure other people.
I live in the countryside in Japan and so it's relatively easy to ride long distances at speed simply by choosing roads that are less busy. I was pleasantly surprised, though, when I rode through a fairly large city (Shizuoka) a while ago. Those blue arrows on the road were actually great in that context. It was clear where you should travel as a cyclist. There were no barriers to navigate in complex corners (which is my biggest complaint of separated cycling infrastructure as sometimes found in Europe). Cars respected my right to be in those lanes, expected me to be there and gave me lots of space. And as you mentioned: no parking on the road.
I understand that some people are very risk averse when cycling, but I feel like a "one size fits all" approach to cycling infrastructure is not good. Low speed, convenience oriented areas are necessary and probably the highest priority. However, it would be nice to have high speed routes linking those areas. Sharing very high traffic, or very fast roads is not ideal and while I think some risk is acceptable, I'd like to see some secondary roads transformed as shared car/high speed bicycle routes. A good example of this might be along the station in Ueno where the existing "sharrows" are on very dangerous roads and the secondary roads are primarily used by pedestrians with the occasional car. Diverting high speed bike traffic down those streets would be a win, IMHO (though you need to find a was to accommodate the flow of pedestrians at peak times).
I’ve been to Japan several times. I think in general, cycling in Japan is quite good. A few area in Tokyo is not so bike friendly. Only a few. But like you mentioned, train is great….
16th best city in the world seems pretty good.
The survey is unreliable since it includes a very limited number of cities. It's easy to get result bias.
And it's probably better than that; the ranking seems dubious.
Great analysis
There's probably a reason for it, but I recall learning (perhaps in one of your videos!) that it's illegal to take your bicycle on a train in Tokyo, unless you can fold it up or put it in a bag for the trip. In the closest large city to me, Melbourne (Australia), you're allowed to take bicycles on trains, and as long as you keep them in a dedicated area in the carriage and out of the way, it's perfectly fine. IMO, I believe that if Tokyo had more allowance for bicycles on trains (such as dedicated on-carriage spaces, etc.), a lot more people would use bicycles for work commutes or longer city trips; a hybrid public transport-personal transport method would no doubt appeal to a lot of people who currently seldom ride (or don't ride at all).
I live in Tokyo and commute daily to university in my bicycle. Cycling is great on the small streets on the neighborhood, you get the best of both the road and pedestrian infrastructure.
I used to bring a chain for securing my bicycle at the beginning but theft is so low that I stopped doing that, so far it has been 4 years since I stopped locking my bike😅, and nothing has ever happen.
As an American, I think it's strange that Japan bikes on the sidewalk with people. As I walk, I have to make sure I look behind me to ensure a bike doesn't sneak up on me. That's my only gripe. But it's completely bikeable. You can get anywhere. You can't do that in America. The roads don't have any room for bikes. They don't even have sidewalks where I'm from.
Here in Missouri we can ride on sidewalks, just give proper right-of-way to walking pedestrians, and your cannot do it in a “business district”. Meaning, like in a city, where you’re going to have highly increased foot traffic (eg. downtown Saint Louis).
It may be because cyclists in Japan don't go very fast and are more polite about sharing.
Depends where in America. But yeah, a lot of the South has bad speed or safety concerns on fiarly narrow roads with no suitable sidewalks often only roadside ditches to, err, ditch to, ...even if there's a few nice bike paths and such, you can't necessarily ride *to* them.
yeah it sucks when people sneak up behind you in Japan and play the "knock out" game.
"I have to make sure I look behind me to ensure a bike doesn't sneak up on me"
Yeah, I learned that too (look back before moving left or right). I also accidentally caused a collision once: I saw a bike coming and stepped out of its way; old guy next to me stepped back for some reason, putting him in way of the bike. No injury resulted, but oops. It was a particularly narrow path, I think narrowed by construction scaffolding.
Massachusetts shares Missouri's "bike on sidewalks outside of business districts", and after a few years of close calls with cars, I used that more and more, along with parks or low-traffic residential streets.
I really hate when content creators randomly use meme's in their videos, especially when it's a full screen meme with audio.
I think it's cheap and jarring and annoying.
But 15:46 is a perfect use case and execution for a meme! Very nice!
I really wanted to bike in Japan during my visit in June 2024, but it was so hard to find how to rent a bike or get something like rideshare/bixi. It's one of my few regrets of things I wasn't able to do during my visit.
This will be interesting xD
I love biking in Tokyo, probably done 10,000 km in just the city area in the last two years I pend there.
I used to live in Shinjuku and still live in the Tokyo area. As some other residents (and the great video) have said, it's a mixed bag. Not bad, but could be better if there was any motivation to make it so.
In major areas like Shinjuku or Ueno, wanting to ride a bike any faster than 10kph is deadly. Sidewalks are too crowded to use, but the roads are 3-4 lanes wide with only "sharrows" to designate that bicycles have a right of way. "Temporary" on street parking is rampant (popping into a convenience store or talking on the phone, or just plain taking a nap for 30 minutes is accepted. And the otherwise omnipresent police seem to be unbothered by it all.) and the chance of getting doored is very high, though I have not been a victim yet thank goodness.
Another major issue is the city runs on convenience stores, which are supplied at least 3 times every day by mid-large (2-ton) trucks. These trucks park for well over 20-30 minutes at the side of the road, and they are everywhere, forcing cyclists into aforementioned 3-4 lanes of traffic. Construction is constant too, and so are the associated dump trucks on any of the major trunk roads.
Tokyo seems to have no real ambition to reduce car or truck use that I've seen. It just wants to put the elevated highways underground where they ruin the view, but the regular roads either get wider or just renewed. One example of how planners and policy makers think here is maybe Odaiba. Full of 4 lane roads, but because there's space, they tacked on separate bike lanes there.
As the video says, bikes are great for going up to 5km, anything over that will probably take you onto a trunk road and all of the above problems. Also, it's horrible to ride between the end of May and end of September, because the heat and humidity just destroys all pleasure from going outdoors.
Having said all that, they cycling roads along the big riverbanks are lovely, they do take you to places (Arakawa goes from near Asakusa/Ueno all the way to Kawagoe for example), and riding at night on weekends in the city is very cool because there's much less traffic and Tokyo still looks like it came out of Blade Runner.
Great video sir!
Do you have any videos about other cities or small towns where it’s easier to bicycle in Japan someday soon I’m gonna visit again and I enjoy bicycling. used to bicycle in Europe and they often had separate paths such as Germany and the Netherlands
It's not easy to capture cycling friendliness in a simple number. I have cycled through Tokyo and many other Japanese cities, and I agree with you. There are annoyances and occasional dangers, but all in all it's great, despite the lack of infrastructure. Part of it is safety in numbers, bikes are everywhere. Part of it is that drivers are far less homicidal than what I see in Europe. Cycling through Amsterdam is great to, and it's easier to plan a longer route there. But for a hop between two random points not too far apart, I wouldn't say there is much difference. Sometimes Amsterdam will be better, sometimes Tokyo.
Cycling the smaller towns and countryside is great in Japan too, in most places. The major exception is the "commercial suburbia" areas with huge shopping centers. Those suck, no matter where in the world you ride. Avoid those, and Japan is a great place for biking.
Oops... at 10:00 you say 194/100,000 but the graphic shows 194/10,000. Maybe adding the comma would have helped you notice 😊