There was a buzz around the foreign cycling community in Japan this week with the announcement of an exciting initiative that aims to ultimately end all that fear and loathing that is experienced by those on two wheels. “We’ll tell you when and where you should be riding on the sidewalk, and when and where you should be riding on the road, and then adding numerous exceptions to this advice,” explained group co-founder Mah-Son Zung.
Zung and co-founder Stephen Liao came up with the idea while sharing a hospital ward after being involved in separate traffic accidents on the same day. “Coincidentally, both of us were car-doored on a notorious stretch of Nakano Dori,” said Liao. “Fortunately, we were both wearing gloves and helmets. We were also wearing vivid lycra outfits, although they didn’t have any real effect on reducing the impact of our collisions.”
Liao went on to provide a background for the reasons behind the new initiative. “There already is some information out there among riding groups. A few of these groups have bizarre rules of their own though. They can set high standards, both in speed and in bicycle condition. They can be unforgiving. In the past members have been kicked out for such things as wearing mismatched socks, wearing the same run-of-the-mill polo shirt three weeks running, and failing to order adventurously at the mid-ride cafe.”
Liao, a 47 year old Chinese-Canadian bond trader from Vancouver, and Zung, a 39 year old Korean-American exporter from San Francisco, discovered that they shared a passion for riding, and used their recovery time productively in brainstorming ideas that would help the cycling fraternity handle the Kafkaesque, Orwellian, and Dickensian nature of traffic law enforcement.
“We’re not just about commuting or looking cool in skintight kits,” insisted Zung. “We’re all about getting our incidents with cops analysed, and then hopefully get concise data and papers written so that we can have a consensus among the biking community that at least one of these cases is truly typical of what’s going on around us. We’re going to be informing of all the changes to bicycle rules updated on a nearly daily basis. This is a new support group that has just been formed to focus on pedal power. Cycling is one of the most respected forms of transportation and here we are reporting honestly on commuting and getting around town, not necessarily in the light that cyclists want to be seen.”
“I hasten to add that being a cyclist in Tokyo is still more pleasant than being a cyclist in San Francisco. The landscape is much flatter, the other riders are generally much less judgemental of your choice of attire, and nobody drives by strongly advising you to put the seat on your bicycle. Mind you, it’s not a case of the Japanese being more mature than Americans. It just means that the Japanese sense of humour hasn’t evolved to that level yet.”
Liao nodded sagely, “I want to get this out to people because I think that it’s really important, because this kind of sets the tone for the project and all its potential revenue making possibilities. It gives us more perspective and it also gives us more guidance on how to be careful and credible, and make sure that we’re sticking to the law, and not just creating more scare stories based off of bad information which really doesn’t help with anything. It certainly doesn’t help us get to the truth. It just keeps us chasing our tails where we’re not focusing on gathering real data to really understand what’s going on with this phenomenon.
“With the collated data, we can delve into how these fluid areas of confusion get created and keep everyone informed. We’re against ignorance. We’re all about getting the word out to everyone, but we’re also all about advising on reality-based solutions. Think of us as a plucky NGO with the soul of a hedge fund. We’re raising awareness while schooling you on how to sweet-talk a cop who’s pulling you up for riding with a little too much consideration for his liking.”
