Advocacy & Safety - cement trucks and bikes don't mix

http://3jar.com/rich/bikes/smashed.jpg

HIROSHIMA--An unattended cement mixer truck rolled about seven meters off a steep road and crashed Friday into a roofed bicycle parking lot at a prefectural senior high school here, police said.

No one was hurt in the crash that damaged or destroyed about 30 bicycles around 9:10 a.m. after classes had started at Itsukaichi Senior High School in Saeki Ward.(IHT/Asahi: November 8,2008)

I bet there was no bike lane on the nearest road!

And:

Since no bicyclist was hurt, they must've been wearing helmets!

I'll make sure to watch out for rolling cement trucks next time I'm in Japan.

Yeah, no one wears helmets and bike lanes are non-existant (and yet bike usage is very high: take that "advocates"). But one nice thing about Japan is that there is bike parking, often covered - like you can see in this photo - at schools, train stations, etc. Fortunately this truck rolled when it did and not a while earlier while dozens of kids were parking their bikes there.

Yeah, no one wears helmets and bike lanes are non-existant (and yet bike usage is very high: take that "advocates"). But one nice thing about Japan is that there is bike parking, often covered - like you can see in this photo - at schools, train stations, etc. Fortunately this truck rolled when it did and not a while earlier while dozens of kids were parking their bikes there.

Oh but there is bike parking... thus some form of encouraging facility.

So let us do what works and get rid of the bake lanes and create bike parking.

Clearly the driver was at fault

Cement trucks and CARS don't mix, either.

Yeah, no one wears helmets and bike lanes are non-existant (and yet bike usage is very high: take that "advocates").

Japan also has the best public transportation infrastructure in the world, combined with a slew of car restrictions in the major cities. In other words, they have A.) infrastructure, and B.) auto restrictions, which are the two ingredients found (in varying proportions) in every bike-friendly city or country on Earth.

Nice try, but no cigar. The formula is still there. There are no exceptions.

It's a different formula than the one preached here. Here you guys preach bike lanes and other "safety" improvements, as if that is really what keeps americans from biking to work. I've posted dozens of times on this forum that the real reason americans don't cycle-commute more is the lack of a public transportation system to make up part of the commute (that and the fact that americans are disqustingly out of shape). I never even thought of needing a car in Japan, but as soon as I moved to California I realized my life would be very limited without one.

BTW, I didn't own a car in Japan, but other than a few street closures on sundays, I'm not aware of any "auto-restrictions" in major cities. What are these restrictions you speak of?

^ I've never preached bike lanes alone, and I don't think anyone else who has looked into bike-friendly cities has either; the formula as I've always stated is A.) infrastructure (which doesn't just include bike lanes, for the sake of repetition), and B.) auto restrictions. Either will do, but both are great.

With regard to auto restrictions in Japan, those come in the form of A.) taxes and fees for car ownership, and B.) a deliberate lack of parking facilities. Street closures are just icing on the cake. The first two have the most significant effect in making people rightly decide it's less of a hassle to just use the train, etc, instead of putting up with the burden of car ownership.