Does this video convey how scary the streets are here?

I keep trying to take video to illustrate how terrifying the traffic and driving culture is in Gyeongju. But nothing seems to accurately convey the feeling of actually being here. The video below is the best I've gotten so far.

It also has the advantage of including a fruit truck. These trucks are pretty common in the city; they drive around, parking at busy intersections or in front of wholesalers. They have loud recorded looped messages advertising their wares. (I use fruit truck in a generic sense; produce is by far the most common item sold off trucks in this way, but it is not the only one.)

There are a few things to note in this video. First is the lack of sidewalks; there are only narrow strips at the side of the road, marked off by a yellow line. Even this narrow walkway is frequently blocked by obstacles, forcing pedestrians to walk into the street with alarming frequency. (Korean pedestrians are completely unconcerned about this, as far as I can tell.)

Second is the completely unregulated intersection. Notice the way cars just slide into it, barely slowing down. There are some large mirrors mounted on poles so you can see traffic coming from the sides, but the visibility is still really poor. Cyclists glide into this intersection as recklessly as cars do.

Third is the cyclist, a topic I wrote on in the previous post.

To view higher-quality video on Vimeo, click me and enter password "korea".

The video was filmed along the route I walk with Tek every morning to take him to school. I no longer find that a heart-stopping experience, which just goes to show that a person can get used to just about anything.

Bicycles in Gyeongju

Gyeongju is a bike city. By that I don't mean that it is particularly friendly to bicycles. In fact, I'd be terrified to ride a bicycle here. But it seems that just about everyone rides a bicycle as a matter of course. It's a ubiquitous and unremarkable form of transportation.

In my American experience, people who ride bicycles are "marked" in some way. They do it for fitness, or recreation, or to make a point about the environment or about urban planning. It's hard to be a regular bike commuter in the US (which I am) without feeling like you're a bit iconoclastic. Certainly others will see you that way.

Not that there isn't recreational biking in Gyeongju. But that's mainly for tourists. Around the Bomun Lake resort area there are lots of bicycle rental shops. Korean and foreign tourists are among their patrons.

But it doesn't take long to realize that the vast majority of Gyeongju residents aren't biking for their health or for sport. Remember this picture of the riverside from an earlier post?

There is a dedicated pedestrian lane, in-line skate line, and bicycle lane. This is on a warm weekend afternoon in April. Where is everybody? (Answer: hiking.)

If you want to find all the cyclists, just walk on the city streets. Young and old, male and female, rain or shine, all on bikes.

First a whole lot of pictures (all taken on a two-block stretch near where we live), then some more commentary. You might notice some familiar faces on the margins of some of the pictures.

I find this intersection terrifying, whether I'm walking or driving. I would not want to bike through it.

A few things to notice:

• No helmets. Never seen one.
• Quite elderly, even frail people ride bikes.
• This may resemble Holland in its flatness (ignoring the mountains ringing the city) and in the ordinariness of bicycle commuting, but it is certainly not Holland in terms of bicycle infrastructure. There is nothing in the way of protected or dedicated lanes or signals. Cyclists are pretty much always weaving in and out of traffic.
• The masks are an ordinary thing in Korea (this has nothing to do with MERS). People wear them to keep out dust, as a courtesy if they have a cold, or if for whatever reason they are worried about getting sick. At all times of year it's normal to see people in face masks around the city.
• Notice how many women are wearing enormous visors? This is what a lot of women, especially middle-aged women, wear for sun protection. (When hiking too.) Erma has been considering getting a visor on this trip, now that she too is an "ajumma".
• The bikes are simple and practical, not built for speed or style. They are sturdy and most have baskets.

In a way, it seems a bit funny to point out how "amazing" it is that all kinds of people ride bikes here. Erma said to me, "It's like saying 'Look at how many different kinds of people drive cars in America. Young, middle aged, even seniors!"

Modified bicycles are not uncommon. Here's an adult bike with "training wheels", though whether it's because the rider has become too old to balance well, or whether it's because she never learned to ride a two-wheeler, is not clear.

Here is one of the bicycle racks in our apartment complex. Just about everybody seems to own a bike.

There aren't a lot of bicycle racks around town, but neither are they rare. Most are non-descript, but these swoopy colorful ones struck Erma's eye on a walk a few weeks ago:

Matsuyama cyclists

Matsuyama residents are masterful cyclists. They appear to be born to their bicycles, like Mongolians on horseback.

They ride on crowded sidewalks among pedestrians, down narrow side streets against car traffic, through shopping malls, over trolley tracks. Old and young, businessmen in suits, college students after class, parents doing errands: everyone, it seems, is on a bike. Despite the close quarters in which they frequently maneuver, I did not once see a collision.

Matsuyamans frequently bike with just one hand, the other being used to hold a bag, an umbrella, or a drink. I once saw a guy biking while holding an umbrella in one hand and an open can of beer in the other.

The bicycles themselves are not at all fancy. On the contrary, they are starkly utilitarian.

Most have baskets in front. The placement of the headlamp is almost always down beside the front wheel.

I like the way the basket support post wraps around the light. This placement of the headlamp is superior to placement on the handlebars the way we do it in the US. First, the light isn't blocked by the basket or its contents.  Second, proximity to the road surface means better illumination. Third, the low placement prevents the light from shining in the eyes of oncoming bicycle, car, or pedestrian traffic.

To support all of this biking, a lot of parking infrastructure is needed.  This is one of the parking areas on Ehime University campus.

Here's the covered mall in downtown Matsuyama.  Actually, I think that parking here might be illegal.

You're supposed to park your bike in one of these parking areas inside the mall, which are patrolled by guards to prevent theft.

A block away from the covered mall is this bicycle and scooter parking garage.  Note the moral monkeys, who are helpfully protecting the environment.

The moral monkeys have created a memorable acronym.  (Okaido is the name of the big street in the downtown area.)

Almost everywhere you go you can always find a few bikes parked.

This is a typical bike lock: simple and small.  It won't prevent someone from physically removing the bike, but it does make it unrideable, which is usually deterrent enough.

During the rainy season, many Matsuyama residents tuck an umbrella along the rear wheel.

Here are a few (blurry) pictures of Matsuyama bikers carrying umbrellas in the rain as they ride.

If I'd planned to stay longer, I would have bought, borrowed, or rented a bicycle.

Crime Wave Inundates Kansai Area

Before we went to Ōsaka, our host told us that the city has the highest crime rate in all of Japan--"like your New York!".

Boy, was he ever right.  We found that crimes were being committed on nearly every street in the city:

Not even Kyōto was immune: