the mode of transport in Takamatsu

in the end of september, i made a business trip to hiroshima, naoshima and takamatsu. it was quite frustrating as i couldnt look around the cities almost at all (naturally as it was a business trip), yet there was an interesting finding about takamatsu, which was its mode of transport.

in takamatsu, bike lanes were quite well organized and therefore it seemed quite convenient to cycle around the city. comparing tokyo there were much less people and traffic of course, and that also enabled cyclists to cycle around. it was a big surprise to me because i really didnt expect cities of the size of takamatsu could afford to do this.

ok, i wouldnt deny its good development of bike lanes, yet i wouldnt say that i like this sort of bike lanes either as im pretty sure pedestrians would walk on this bike lanes to bother cyclists (as i did without noticing it) and cyclists dont care which direction they would cycle to. so in my opinion, bike lanes should be organized on the edge of traffic roads so that cyclists must follow the flow of traffic and pedestrians wouldnt bother them. plus, some areas provide bike lanes on the traffic road, but as the traffic lights were not yet provided for cyclists, inconvenient pathway was provided. 

nways, although this city has quite good bike lanes in japanese standard, it seemed that the number of cyclists were much more on pedestrian's mall. in this sort of area, bikes shouldnt be allowed in my opinion. 

i hope cyclists would obtain better rights in the cities in this country in the near future, yet in order to make it come true, cyclists should understand how they should cycle in cities.