The National Police Agency on Oct. 25 told the police across the nation to strictly enforce cycling rules and give traffic tickets to bicycle riders who maliciously pose a danger to pedestrians.
The NPA took this step because an increasing number of bicycle riders are ignoring the rules and many deaths and injuries are caused by bicycles. 2010 saw 151,626 accidents involving bicycles or 20.9 percent of all the traffic accidents. Since 2008, slightly less than 500 people have been killed yearly while riding bicycles — about 60 percent of them elderly. In Osaka Prefecture, the number of bicycle-related accidents causing injury or death has increased by about seven-fold since 2000.
There is a bicycle boom of sorts in Japan. One factor behind it is the 3/11 earthquake and tsunami. On that day, trains were knocked out of service in the Tokyo area and many people had problems getting home. Having personally experienced or seen this, many people started using bicycles to commute to work or school.