{"id":137427,"date":"2016-04-19T13:52:14","date_gmt":"2016-04-19T11:52:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/?p=137427"},"modified":"2016-04-21T08:47:21","modified_gmt":"2016-04-21T08:47:21","slug":"the-spirit-of-cycling-in-tokyo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2016\/04\/19\/the-spirit-of-cycling-in-tokyo\/","title":{"rendered":"The Spirit of Cycling in Tokyo: Why Does It Work?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>When you talk about cycling in London, it isn\u2019t long before accident rates and the somewhat hostile relationship between cyclists and drivers is brought up, but when you talk about cycling culture in Tokyo, the story is very different.<\/strong><br \/>\n<!--more--><\/p>\n<div class=\"embed-controller-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"embed-wrapper\"><iframe title=\"The Gaman Spirit: Why Cycling Works in Tokyo\" data-src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/157120644?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture; clipboard-write\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Cycling infrastructure is an increasing topic of conversation in cities.\u00a0 Where most urban landscapes seem to prioritize traffic over people, the culture is shifting rapidly. As fitness, convenience, the environment, and an increasing desire to cultivate a healthier work\/life balance contribute to a changing mindset, there is a drive to change the way our cities function.<\/p>\n<p>In cities like Sevilla\u00a0the infrastructure is inherently positive, people are a primary consideration and cycling is a common mode of transport.\u00a0 The harmony between people and traffic works extremely well there, but it\u2019s far from the universal standard and is driven largely by the fact that a large portion of the city\u2019s traffic consists of bikes.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=1tvYlUH9YRo\">https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=1tvYlUH9YRo<\/a><\/p>\n<p>While most cities have an increasing population of cyclists, it remains at 1% or 2% for most.\u00a0 In Tokyo however, 14% of all trips are taken by bicycles every day. Yet despite that figure, there has been little or no move towards developing the infrastructure to support and cultivate the trend.\u00a0 So why the high numbers?<\/p>\n<p>In general, cities all want more cyclists and in places like New York those numbers would be welcomed with open arms, but Tokyo has a meagre 10km of cycle paths to its name.\u00a0 In fact, the result is that many of the cyclists use the pavement and move in tandem with pedestrians in order to steer clear of traffic and remain safe \u2013something that would cause outrage in a lot of other cities.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=NAr5sB6aivk\">https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=NAr5sB6aivk<\/a><\/p>\n<p>There are practical factors for the popularity of cycling in Tokyo, much like there is in any other city.\u00a0 It\u2019s prohibitively expensive to park and own a car in Tokyo, the roads are increasingly dangerous, but also the mentality around cycling is different \u2013 it\u2019s something that most people have been doing all their lives in a general sense, even if it\u2019s not something they do now, so no one thinks anything of hopping on their bike to go to the shops, it\u2019s just what they do.\u00a0 But practicalities aside, cyclists there as in any other city know that there is great pleasure to be derived from cycling \u2013 as one cyclist interviewed on Treehugger.com pointed out, when you cycle you realize that the city is actually rather small, while when you\u2019re on the metro it\u2019s all too easy to lose your bearings and be unaware of the distances and directions in which you\u2019re travelling.<\/p>\n<p>Byron Kidd from <strong>Tokyo By Bike <\/strong>believes that the main reason for cycling\u2019s enduring popularity in Tokyo however, is the culture of the people themselves, and notably the Gaman spirit \u2013 a Zen Buddhist term meaning: &#8220;enduring the seemingly unbearable with patience and dignity.&#8221;\u00a0 That definition seems a little extreme, but in short, it means \u2018getting on with it without complaining.\u2019<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-137428\" src=\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2016\/04\/Screen-Shot-2016-04-19-at-13.31.10-600x237.png\" alt=\"Cycling infrastructure is an increasing topic of conversation in cities. Where most urban landscapes seem to prioritize traffic over people, the culture is shifting rapidly. As fitness, convenience, the environment, and an increasing desire to cultivate a healthier work\/life balance contribute to a changing mindset, there is a drive to change the way our cities function.\" width=\"600\" height=\"237\" \/><\/p>\n<p>There is a strong sense of happiness and enjoyment around cycling in Tokyo, anyone you speak to about it has a wonderful smile on their face.\u00a0 So the essence is that cycling is something they want to do and therefore the lack of infrastructure isn\u2019t going to put them off \u2013 if they have to cycle amongst pedestrians they will just get on with it.\u00a0 Just imagine how popular it could be with the right infrastructure in place then!?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When you talk about cycling in London, it isn\u2019t long before accident rates and the somewhat hostile relationship between cyclists [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":137431,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[333,335,334,330],"tags":[341],"global-categories":[],"class_list":["post-137427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-family","category-safety","category-socialising-and-culture","category-urban-cycling","tag-bike-friendly-cities"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.3 (Yoast SEO v25.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Spirit of Cycling in Tokyo: Why Does It Work? 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