Funny thing, despite the statistics saying Toronto has four times the fatality rate per capita cycling as Tokyo, it doesn't mean there are fewer collisions for cyclists like me:
- I have been cut off more here and bumped into things more, avoiding them
- there are fewer collisions at speed, as traffic is slower, so fewer consequences
- most Tokyo cyclists dink about their neighbourhood about as far as I'd stroll on a whim, so aren't out on the avenues with me
- Tokyo is a car centred city as much as N.American ones, except for the nuclei around its stations
- Tokyo drivers are profoundly worse after sunset, which is earlier than Toronto, writing off much of the year (because streets are much more poorly lit by streetlamps, because your bike lights are competing with the neon clutter of the city, or another factor?)
- it is an unrelievedly ugly city along its avenues
- with more than double the lights per km than Toronto
- there are no off road paths anywhere you can use them for a commute
Sounds like things have changed a lot since I biked around the western suburbs as a kid on my BMX bike in the early 80s. Drivers were mostly watchful. My only serious crash involved an American G.I. who didn't watch where she was going. Admittedly I didn't ride much at night.
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