Japan Bike Parking Laws

[John]

It was interesting to see that in Tokyo where there are millions of cyclist
getting around, and with great respect from cars and pedestrians unlike
Australia that seems to hate Cyclists guts.
Anyway an interesting thing I saw was that many bikes were getting parking
tickets for parking in an illegal area, and what I made out was that you get
some sort of warning for a few hours, and after that a huge truck comes
along and gets your bike and impounds it, and I saw the impoundment yard
full of bikes, and a sign saying the penalty is a 6,000 yen or about $60 to
get your bike back.
Amazing.
Also its amazing that you can leave your bike outside your apartment
overnight unlocked and still find it there in the morning, again unlike
Australia.

 

[Tamyka Bell]

John wrote:
>
> It was interesting to see that in Tokyo where there are millions of cyclist
> getting around, and with great respect from cars and pedestrians unlike
> Australia that seems to hate Cyclists guts.
> Anyway an interesting thing I saw was that many bikes were getting parking
> tickets for parking in an illegal area, and what I made out was that you get
> some sort of warning for a few hours, and after that a huge truck comes
> along and gets your bike and impounds it, and I saw the impoundment yard
> full of bikes, and a sign saying the penalty is a 6,000 yen or about $60 to
> get your bike back.
> Amazing.
> Also its amazing that you can leave your bike outside your apartment
> overnight unlocked and still find it there in the morning, again unlike
> Australia.

I was under the impression that most bikes in Japan have immobilisers
(though I'm not sure what part is immobilised) so you lock the bike
itself, rather than chaining it to something fixed.

I was also told by a friend who lived in Japan for several years, that
if you see a bike that looks like yours, you take it, and rest assured
that when the correct owner finds it missing, he or she will just take
yours or somebody else's that also looks the same, and everyone is
happy.

I have no idea how much of this is true!

Tam

 

[Spoken4]

Tamyka Bell wrote:
> John wrote:
>> It was interesting to see that in Tokyo where there are millions of cyclist
>> getting around, and with great respect from cars and pedestrians unlike
>> Australia that seems to hate Cyclists guts.
>> Anyway an interesting thing I saw was that many bikes were getting parking
>> tickets for parking in an illegal area, and what I made out was that you get
>> some sort of warning for a few hours, and after that a huge truck comes
>> along and gets your bike and impounds it, and I saw the impoundment yard
>> full of bikes, and a sign saying the penalty is a 6,000 yen or about $60 to
>> get your bike back.
>> Amazing.
>> Also its amazing that you can leave your bike outside your apartment
>> overnight unlocked and still find it there in the morning, again unlike
>> Australia.
>
> I was under the impression that most bikes in Japan have immobilisers
> (though I'm not sure what part is immobilised) so you lock the bike
> itself, rather than chaining it to something fixed.
>
> I was also told by a friend who lived in Japan for several years, that
> if you see a bike that looks like yours, you take it, and rest assured
> that when the correct owner finds it missing, he or she will just take
> yours or somebody else's that also looks the same, and everyone is
> happy.
>
> I have no idea how much of this is true!
>
> Tam
The trouble with Japanese bikes is that they tend to swerve towards cars
and try to deliberately hit them.

 

[flyingdutch]

It was interesting to see that in Tokyo where there are millions of cyclist
getting around, and with great respect from cars and pedestrians unlike
Australia that seems to hate Cyclists guts.
Anyway an interesting thing I saw was that many bikes were getting parking
tickets for parking in an illegal area, and what I made out was that you get
some sort of warning for a few hours, and after that a huge truck comes
along and gets your bike and impounds it, and I saw the impoundment yard
full of bikes, and a sign saying the penalty is a 6,000 yen or about $60 to
get your bike back.
Amazing.
Also its amazing that you can leave your bike outside your apartment
overnight unlocked and still find it there in the morning, again unlike
Australia.

same in Holland. probabaly using O-Locks which lock up the back wheel/frame but not to anytihng.
They also had a impounding thing going on, but couldnt quite figure out what their angle was! Seemed to be in the more open-touristy areas but they would walk up to 20 bike slocked to a bit of street furniture and only take 3-4 of them. some kinda discerning comments as they scouted the lot to apply angle grinder to cablelock to and throw bike in back of truck.

maybe it was...
"aarrgh. japanese **** bikes! Aluminium!! die! And this one has GEARS
!!! off they go. bwahahahhahahah...

 

[DJ]

"John" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> It was interesting to see that in Tokyo where there are millions of
> cyclist getting around, and with great respect from cars and pedestrians
> unlike Australia that seems to hate Cyclists guts.
> Anyway an interesting thing I saw was that many bikes were getting parking
> tickets for parking in an illegal area, and what I made out was that you
> get some sort of warning for a few hours, and after that a huge truck
> comes along and gets your bike and impounds it, and I saw the impoundment
> yard full of bikes, and a sign saying the penalty is a 6,000 yen or about
> $60 to get your bike back.
> Amazing.
> Also its amazing that you can leave your bike outside your apartment
> overnight unlocked and still find it there in the morning, again unlike
> Australia.
>
>


The Average Jap commuter bike is so very basic and usually at least each
household has at least one, local people wouldn't bother to nick em anyway,
and most communities over there are so closely bundled in together that
someone would see something. They seem to have an O lock set-up on back
wheel just as a basic security device but many don't bother to use it.
Japanese people rarely see the bicycle as a fun device but only as a way to
cheaply get from a-b, down the shops to buy daily food or to the station for
work. In australia they have car parks at most rail stations over in Tokyo
they have multi-level or just large outdoor bike parking stations. Most of
the bikes all look the same, mostly same colour,brand etc and very cheap
$100-179 in a bike shop.
Rarely do you see MTBs', racers or any other bike parked or sitting
anywhere.

DJ