Although first-time visitors to Tokyo are impressed by the convenient subway system and the eco-friendly bicycles, longer-term residents have experienced fighting their way through carelessly parked bicycles or nearly being knocked over by a bicycle suddenly coming up behind them on the sidewalk.
Even so, few think of bicycles as a mortal threat. However, in 2009 there were 156,373 incidents in Japan involving bicycles, or 21.2 percent of all traffic accidents. More than 80 percent of those bicycle-related accidents involved cars, but 2,934 were with pedestrians, up from 801 10 years earlier.
In response, police have become stricter with cyclists and courts have been awarding large damages to victims. In one example from 2005, a 37-year-old man on a bicycle ran a red light and struck a 55-year-old woman crossing the street. She hit her head on the pavement and died several days later. Unlike most cyclists, he happened to have insurance through a credit card that paid the award of over ¥54 million to her survivors.