Yokohama Carfree Day

Please check out the site about Yokohama Carfree Day, which will be held September 23rd.

Bike trailer

(I guessI didn't have as much time as I wanted to create this blog....)

My family brought over this Trail-A-Bike from America. I think we may be one of the few people in Japan to have one! It is quite cool and every one stops what they are doing to check it out. Someone we know took this picture and put it on her blog (she blocked out our faces for privacy - it would have been ok....)

Anyway, this shows a big difference between the States and Japan. In the US, cycling is for fun and people have "toys" like this. (Though this is changing is progressive citeis liek Portland.)

In Japan, cycling is largely a way of transportation, so most seats are attached to the bike for safety. We use this bike for transportation purposes (though it is also fun!). Toma is too big to ride on a normal child seat, and not steady enough to ride his own bike through traffic. We ride this to the train station when we go on a day trip. Mom and the two little kids ride on the other bike with 2 child seats. (The station is a 12 minute walk or a 3-5 minute bike ride.)

Kio also rides this with me to pre-school. Since I can attach this to my normal bike with gears and since Kio can help pedal, it is easier and faster than our bike with a child seat.

"Save the Shimokita"

Shimokitazawa was one of the reasons I became interested in carfree communities. It is one of the best places in all of Japan. But it will likely be destroyed....

When I first visited Japan in 1996 to visit my girlfriend (current wife and carfree babe), I first exited the station and entered the streets of Gotokuji, near Shimokitzawa, in Tokyo's Setagaya. I was shocked. I never imagined a modern city with such narraw streets. The street seemed liked a hall, yet I was outside. It was full of shops and people. (I later would move to Gotokuji a year later.) Because of the narrow streets, the shops nearby, and the train network, few people drove. Therefore, the streets were peaceful - not what I imagined a neighborhood would be like in the biggest city in the world. I thought this could be a model for cities across the world. Because of that first scene, I have always had a special image of urban Japan.

Shimokitazawa is a few stops away and was our favorite hangout. "Shimokita" has a similar network of streets like Gotokukuji, but it is a destination rather than a local community. It is full of funky shops, bars, and young quasi-bohemian types. It is not carfree, but pedestrians outnumber cars 100-1. I thought Japan was full of places like this. But now I know, these areas are few and far between, and increasingly threatened....

I was stunned when I heard they were planning to destroy this amazingly successful and vibrant area to build a needless wide road and redevelopment. It is sad they do this to any place in Japan, but it is sickenig that they would do it to such a thriving area. The situation was even covered in the New York Times.

There is a movement to stop this called "Save the Shimokita": Japanese link / English link. Be sure to support the movement and join the local events if you live in the area!

1 world, 2 wheels

The 1 World, 2 Wheels video below summarizes reasons to go by bike in America, even with the whole fam. The reasons are similar to mine in the first post, though I have added 5 more.

He points out that bikes are a solution for travelling within 2 miles (I would add that going on foot is the better solution if going less than 1/2 mile). This is realistic. Some people are extreme bike commuters, dressed in bike gear and commuting 10 miles to work. That's fine, but convincing others to do the same is ridiculous (I wouldn't do it), and even the infamous commericial State Farm makes fun of such hard core riders. One good thing about Japan is that all age groups ride (like my wife's 90 grandparents), and few are hard core with special gear. (This is quite in contrast to everything else in Japan where most people feel the have to have the specialty gear for everything.) I don't have any special gear exept my helmut, which I only wear when commuting, and I used to have a "mama-chari" (a single speed bike with a basket) that got heavy use everyday.

To get people to ride more within 2 miles though, you have to go further and encourage people to choose to live near work, schools, services (or to support mixed-use devepment). It is easy to be carfee in many neighborhoods like this in Japan. We chose to rent our home (a condo, called a "mansion" in Japan) in Totsuka in Yokohama because it is close to my work, shopping, schools, hospitals, the library, city hall, even a community pool. Of course, there is this trend in the States now to build mixed-use, but sadly Japan is going the other direction (slowly).

Reasons we have a carfree family.

A lot fo people, ask why we choose not to have a car. In this first post, I'll mention ten reasons, and in the coming weeks & months I'll try to expand upon each point.

1. Save up to $10,000 a year for the family
2. Have more free time
(We save time that would otherwise be spent in traffic, maintaining the car, earning to pay for the car,working out to make up for the lack of excercise from car-dependence, etc.)
3. Stay safe
(1,000,000 people die due to car accidents each year - the no.1 threat for many populations.)
4. Stay healthy
(I've lost over 5kg. from commuting by bike. The kids stay fit walking everyone, including
school.)
5. A more vibrant neigborhood
(The most vibrant and attractive cities & neighborhoods are carfree or pedestrain friendly.)
6. More space to play
(Narrow roads & less parking mean more space for my kids to walk, ride, & play).
7. Save wild spaces surrounding cities
(Car dependent cities have a bigger footprint.)
8. Less air pollution
9. Less noise pollution
(The quietest neighborhoods I lived in were relatively carfree.)
10. Be fair
(The earth cannot support a car for every family. Why should my family have one if others cannot?)