On road without pedestrian road, we often see vehicles pass within a hairbreadth of pedestrians and bikers. Once, I saw a TV news reporting on an accident that a truck run into a line of elementary school children. They were on their way to school. I can not forget this news. It is unbearable that children die just because road from/to school is unsafe.
Come to think of it, in most cases, schools are located off the center of towns. Because of that, often the roads to schools have no pedestrian roads. Unfotunately, in fact, vehicle traffic gets more priority than pedestrian traffic when it comes to road planning.
Historicaly, as vehicles become popular, they have been getting higher priority over pedestrians in Japanese road planning. For instance, white side lines painted on road without pedestrian ways are called "Outside Line for Vehicles". I had been mistakenly understood the white line as a line showing space for pedestrians. The line show the outside limit of roads for drivers. This means there is no consideration and space for pedestrians. The name of the white line tells us how vehicles are centered when in roads planning.
Lately, roads for bicycles are increasing in Europe due to high concern on ecology. Especially in The Netherlands where the popularity of bicycles is the highest in the world, the ratio of bicycle road in the overall roads is about 9%. Bicycle roads are well developed especially in urban area. You can find many people commuteing by bicycles in the rush hours of Amsterdam. Bicycle transportation is well developed not only because of good bicycle roads but also traffic lights exclusively for bicycles, big bicycle parking lot and other systems to encourage bicycle ride.
The ratio of bicycle road in Japan is 0.6%. It is way behind The Netherlands' 9%. The ratio of owning bicycle is however 1.7person per 1bicycle in Japan and it is not far from The Netherlands' 1 person per 1 bicycle. These figures show road for bicycle is not enough in Japan but people use, or at least own, bicycles very much. It means the further potencial demand for bicycle transportation is high. If there is more bicycle roads and bicycle parking lot and if bicycles can be carried in trains, people might use bicycles more often.
In "Public opinion servey of road", announced by Cabinet Office in January 2001, one of the serveied items was "Expectation to Future Road Planning". The most popular answer was "vehicle-free road or road with highest priority on pedestrians" then comes "bypass and beltway" followed by "pedestrian road". "Bicycle road"comes in 7th and "Expressway" and "highway" comes in 9th and 10th. (Chart A) This survey shows people are no longer asking for expressways or highways that connect towns. People want to have an environment in which passing through vehicles are reduced and pedestrians and bikers can freely and safely move around.
Road planning now in Japan however differs from the result of the public opinion survey. For instance, in 2001 road-planning budget of the city I live in, the biggest budget is for "highway" and "road for daily living" gets the second biggest budget and it is followed by "pedestrian road". The budget for "pedestrian road" is only 1/7th of that of "highway" and there is no budget for "bicycle road". This road planning is quite different from the result of the opinion survey but it is very common example. This comparison is not "apple to apple" but I am sure about the discrepancy between the public opinion and average road planning.
Elderly people, students and children who can not or do not drive cars, and those who live without owning cars deserves high credit for the contribution to stop global warming. From ecology point of view, they should be respected very much. However, roads for such people such as pedestrian roads and bicycle roads are not good enough quality wise and quantity wise. I think roads for pedestrians and bikers should get more attension.
It is nice to move fast to somewhere far by Airplanes, vehicles, or high-speed trains. But before enjoying such comfort or luxury, we should be able to enjoy safe walking and bicycling to neighborhood. Such an environment is very much needed now in Japan.
