You'd think that with four lanes going each way, the section of National Route 14 running by Kameido Station in eastern Tokyo would be a perfect place to add a bike lane. Who wouldn't agree to sacrifice just one of eight car lanes if it got bikes off the pavement and thus reduced accidents with pedestrians?
Shopkeepers, that's who. Two years ago, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, which operates the road, decided to hand over a 400-meter stretch of one eastbound lane to peddle-pushers. Because they were worried that the thoroughfare's fast-moving cars were a danger to cyclists, they erected a fence between the two-way, 2-meter-wide bike lane on the road's northern side and the remaining seven lanes for cars.
It was that fence that caused the problems. Phase two of the plan, which was supposed to be completed last year, would have seen the bike lane extended by 800 meters — 500 meters east and 300 meters west. That was until traders complained they would no longer be able to pull their cars up to the curb and unload their wares.