Originally Posted by
TrekJapan
After living in Japan for a number of years it's plain to see that bike lanes in Japan are pretty much the norm (even if people use them as parking).
Maybe the norm in Okinawa, but maybe not in Japan overall. I lived in Tokyo for most of the 90s and can't remember seeing a bike lane. We just rode in the road, on the sidewalk, through the parks, wherever we wanted...
FWIW, I was in Visalia, California for the start of stage 5 of the tour of california this week and was reminded that the streets there built from the 60s/70s on all have a parking lane, a bike lane, a wide traffic lane, and also a lane down the middle that you pull in to before making a left hand turn into your driveway or whatever. Old, worn out farmland is cheap and they might as well make the streets super wide with something for everyone.