Cycling to work banned

"Simonb" writes:

Orienteer wrote:
From my experience of Japanese culture, the solution is to find a way
that doesn't involve 'loss of face' to the Japanese involved.
Therefore parking the bike round the corner, but well out of sight,
seems the best solution.

How would this solve anything?

The firm is unwilling to allow him to ride his tandem to work because they
do not want to be held liable for any accident that may result on his
commute.

Yes, but that isn't what 'face' is about. Herbert-from-security San
has made his decree. He can't back down, because that would be to lose
face. But he probably doesn't actually care that much about it, so
provided you don't rub his nose in it you can probably get away with
it. Just don't let him see two of you actually on the tandem at the
same time.

The 'two tandems to work' solution might be a goer - after all, you've
got three - but I would consult with Japanese friends first because
although clearly technically legal it might be seen as
provocative. But the 'park the bike round the corner' solution, or the
'one of you gets off 100 metres from the gate' solution should both be
fine. What the eye doesn't see the heart doesn't grieve over.


Ride tandem to work
is forbidden. Solution?
travel to nearby.


--
(Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/
/-\ You have discovered a security flaw in a Microsoft product. You can
|-| report this issue to our security tesm. Would you like to
| | * Be completely ignored (default)?
| | * Receive a form email full of platitudes about how much we care?
\_/ * Spend hours helping us fix this problem for free?

Louise Bremner wrote:

(How controllable is a tandem ridden by one
person, anyway?)

Back in my days as a Penniless Student Oaf, the then-Editor of the college
paper was frequently to be observed riding solo around South Kensington on a
tandem. At least once I saw him doing so from the stoker's position too,
though /that/ didn't look terribly controllable.

The one time I tried it I got terrible wheelspin trying to climb a short
sharp incline in the wet.

--

Dave Larrington - http://www.legslarry.beerdrinkers.co.uk/
================================================== =========
Editor - British Human Power Club Newsletter
http://www.bhpc.org.uk/
================================================== =========

Michael Cash wrote:


Advice:

1. Get two bicycles
2. Get your ass off your shoulders
3. Give us all this from the beginning instead of this roundabout
bull****

As always, Michael Cash provides the most helpful advice, so I will tag
a general reply onto his comments.

I don't think that hiding the tandem out of sight is likely to work for
long. For the past two years we have been effectively operating under a
"don't ask, don't tell" system with them refusing to give us an official
"permit to park at work" sticker and us just parking there without the
permit. It's clear that for some reason someone has decided that this is
no longer acceptable. There is a suitable place nearby to park
off-premises, but a large red tandem is pretty hard to hide and some
busybody would be sure to snitch. I also doubt that many of the legal
evasions would work, a govt organisation will not be able to sign away
its responsibilities so easily, and a blunt refusal to consider the idea
is a no-risk strategy from their point of view. If they were prepared to
discuss or negotiate, the ultimatum would not have been issued in this
manner in the first place.

All is not lost yet, however, and I do have a couple of ideas up my
sleeve. The first is to play the cute gaijin and write back to him
directly in my limited Japanese. Maybe it will amuse him enough for him
to forget the underlying problem. Also, we may try to get a set of
training wheels. The law clearly applies to 2 and 3 wheeled vehicles
only. I suspect this might not go down well but it's worth considering.

As for just giving up and riding single bikes: well, we could do this as
a last resort. However our commute is rather too long and hilly for
comfort - the tandem is much faster, and we chose our house location
largely from the point of view of its suitability for cycling to work
from. Also, the roads are quite busy and the tandem is much safer - we
do ride singles occasionally (eg when one of us is away) but it is a
much more unpleasant experience - a tandem gets so much respect due to
the extra road presence, and the extra speed also helps us mix with the
motorised traffic. Strange as it might seem to readers from flj (and
maybe the other newsgroups!), tandeming to work every day is an
important part of our lives, it has figured very highly in all of our
job and house choices and we are not keen to let some petty bureaucrat
take it away from us without good reason.

Here is the law, as it was given to me, with a translation. Apologies to
those who can't read the japanese but I would be grateful for
confirmation that the translation (not mine) is a fair one. It is clear
that the target is multiple occupancy of an ordinary bicycle, not
tandems themselves. It is not the tandem bicycle itself that is the
problem, one person riding a tandem is ok (but a bit awkward and silly
for any significant distance). In the UK, I believe the equivalent law
has the exception "unless specifically adapted for the purpose" but here
that clause only applies to the carrying of small children and not more
generally. The law specifically mentions 2 and 3 wheels, hence the idea
for training wheels (maybe I would need a car driver's licence then:-).


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Article 9: The limitation of the numbers of people and load capacity
on a (light-weight) vehicle

When riding a two-wheeled vehicle or three-wheeled cycles, the number of
people
on the vehicle cannot exceed one.
But there are exceptions and those are as follows:
1) When setting a device in a safe way on the vehicle and one person under
6 years old is riding on this device accompanied by a driver who is
older than 16 years old.
2) When cycling on a road exclusively for a cycler with devices on your
vehicles,
you can ride with the amount of people that the device is allowed to carry.


James

Darin McGrew wrote:

Louise Bremner wrote:
Don't know what a "stoker" is in this context. Maybe I'm better off not
knowing, since I never really learnt to ride a bike myself?

On a tandem, the person in the front is the captain, and the person in the
back is the stoker.

Ah.... The person doing most of the hard work?

__________________________________________________ ______________________
Louise Bremner (log at gol dot com)
If you want a reply by e-mail, don't write to my Yahoo address!

On Thu, 22 Jan 2004 10:54:34 +0000, Dave Larrington wrote:

Louise Bremner wrote:

(How controllable is a tandem ridden by one
person, anyway?)

Back in my days as a Penniless Student Oaf, the then-Editor of the college
paper was frequently to be observed riding solo around South Kensington on a
tandem. At least once I saw him doing so from the stoker's position too,
though /that/ didn't look terribly controllable.

The one time I tried it I got terrible wheelspin trying to climb a short
sharp incline in the wet.

A trombonist in one of the groups I play in uses his (upright) tandem with
special replacements for the stoker's saddle and bars which hold his
trombone case lengthways above the top tube.

No hills around here, so wheelspin is not a problem.

"James Annan" wrote in message
-

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There may be an official translation of this one, but here is the gist:

Article 9. Weight and Passenger Restrictions on Light Vehicles[1]

No more than on person may ride a bicycle or tricycle, with the following
exceptions:

(1) A child under the age of six is seated safely in a seat mounted on the
vehicle, and the vehicle is being operated by a person of at least 16 years
of age

(2) The vehicle is being ridden on a bicycle path *or the like*, and the
number of persons riding the vehicle does not exceed the number of seats
thereon.

So, it seems perfectly legal to ride a tandem on a bicycle path, and the *or
the like* (nado) may actually give you some wiggle room as to what gets
defined as a "road for the exclusive use of bicycles and the like (jitensha
senyou douro nado)." I.e., what is "like" a bike path? Is a sidewalk like a
bike path? Is a pedestrian-only street like a bike path? Etc.

However, since you have already ****ed off your boss, it might be a bit late
for some winking and nudging. Good luck!

By the way, clause (2) there seems to rule out any possibilty of tandems
having been excluded "by mistake," as they provide for them specifically as
long as they are on bike paths (or the like g).

[1] The law should define what a "light" vehicle is somewhere, but it
probably includes gentsuki (scooters), bicycles, and electric carts (e.g.
Rascal).

--
Regards,
Ryan Ginstrom

James Annan wrote:
Article 9: The limitation of the numbers of people and load capacity
on a (light-weight) vehicle

When riding a two-wheeled vehicle or three-wheeled cycles, the number of
people
on the vehicle cannot exceed one.
But there are exceptions and those are as follows:
1) When setting a device in a safe way on the vehicle and one person under
6 years old is riding on this device accompanied by a driver who is
older than 16 years old.
2) When cycling on a road exclusively for a cycler with devices on your
vehicles,
you can ride with the amount of people that the device is allowed to carry.

James

2) I think a seat fits the category of devices to carry additional
persons. Check with your friendly police officer.

Also write a letter to your boss explaining your experiences with single
and tandem bicycles on your way to work, exactly like you did in this
message.

Ryan Ginstrom wrote:

"James Annan" wrote in message
-

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$B!!!!l9g$O!"$3$N8B$j$G$O$J$$!#(B



(2) The vehicle is being ridden on a bicycle path *or the like*, and the
number of persons riding the vehicle does not exceed the number of seats
thereon.


By the way, clause (2) there seems to rule out any possibilty of tandems
having been excluded "by mistake," as they provide for them specifically as
long as they are on bike paths (or the like g).

Hmmm. It seems to me that this clause is referring not to "the number of
seats" but something more "appropriate apparatus for carrying that many
people" and as such I find it a strange way of referring to tandems and
other multi-seat bikes, if that is really its purpose. It sounds more
like a circus bike for special displays. But maybe that's just how the
nihongo works.

I wonder how rickshaws are treated under this law. They are ubiquitous
in my home town (tourist trap).

It is good to see that *and the like* as it definitely provides the
wriggle room for off-road MTB tandeming which I had always wondered
about and will now happily assert is unequivocally legal (at least until
I am arrested and charged). I must point Mr Bureaucrat in the direction
of this web page:

http://www.ne.jp/asahi/julesandjames...ute/index.html

Thanks,

James

In article , James Annan wrote:
2) When cycling on a road exclusively for a cycler with devices on your
vehicles,
you can ride with the amount of people that the device is allowed to carry.

Didn't you say that tandem bikes were outlawed by accident? If so,
why would they have this clause?

Seems to me that the law against tandem bikes was intentional. While
you may not like it, that's the law.

- awh

James Annan wrote:

It is good to see that *and the like* as it definitely provides the
wriggle room for off-road MTB tandeming which I had always wondered
about and will now happily assert is unequivocally legal (at least until
I am arrested and charged). I must point Mr Bureaucrat in the direction
of this web page:

http://www.ne.jp/asahi/julesandjames...ute/index.html

I explored some of the other pages on your site, and smiled at the comment
on the page below about campsites not accepting tents. Only in Japan...
http://www.ne.jp/asahi/julesandjames...our/index.html

--
Dave Fossett
Saitama, Japan