You are reading a single comment by @Utter_Bawbag and its replies.
Click here to read the full conversation.
London Fixed Gear and Single-Speed is a community of predominantly fixed gear and single-speed cyclists in and around London, UK.
This site is supported almost exclusively by donations. Please consider donating a small amount regularly.
@Utter_Bawbag
The cycling laws in Japan are incredibly lax - in fact, they're 99% of the time ignored by both cyclists and the police themselves.
However, there is one (debatably) good side to the overall road laws in Japan -
In an accident involving vehicles, cyclists, pedestrians and any combination thereof, the guilt is immediately allocated to the larger object. So if a cyclist hits a pedestrian, the cyclist has the burden of proof to show they were not at fault. No proof means the cyclist is going to pay out big time. Likewise, a car hitting a cyclist is forced to show they were driving safely.
In and of itself, it's a horrible way to allocate blame. However, as most drivers know they're going to be financially fucked if they clip and down a cyclist, they generally (generally) give cyclists a wide berth. Taxi drivers are different as their companies have special insurance deals in place, but for the general road-using community it all works out pretty well.
I'm absolutely sure the system would fail back in Blighty, but the element of fear for drivers does work.