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Why I’m a Japan-ophile

Via Copenhagenize, I adored this photo of a bicycle parking structure in Fukishima.

Mikael notes: “Then I noticed the lovely older gentlemen who serve no other function than to straighten up the bikes so they look nice and take up as little space as possible. In the top photo, the lady parked her bike, locked the wheel lock and headed off. The man sauntered over and straightened it every so slightly.”

The art of bicycle arranging! Needless to say, the man, like many people who work in transport (e.g., taxi drivers) in Japan, is wearing white gloves.

My only question, given the country’s demographics, is whether there will be people in the future to fill such jobs. Maybe a robotic bicycle parking attendant?

Over at Brownstoner, meanwhile, the question is asked: How long should bikes be allowed to be chained to public parking structures?

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 9th, 2009 at 2:32 pm and is filed under Bicycles, Cities. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

5 Responses to “Why I’m a Japan-ophile”

  1. Erik Says:
    June 9th, 2009 at 3:00 pm

    I bet that guy doesn’t work there, he just likes to hang out and keep an eye on the bikes.

  2. Kirk Voelcker Says:
    June 9th, 2009 at 4:05 pm

    Please note in the background another attendant dressed in the same uniform performing the same activity.

  3. Abe Says:
    June 9th, 2009 at 7:29 pm

    Japan apparently already has robotic bicycle attendants:

    http://tinyurl.com/ml4v3h

  4. Yokota Fritz Says:
    June 9th, 2009 at 11:16 pm

    Tom, in Japan there are many many government make work positions just like this. Economists consider it wasteful and an inefficient use of resources.

  5. Wes Says:
    June 11th, 2009 at 4:43 pm

    Utilizing space as efficiently as possible does not seem wasteful to me. Don’t listen to everything your Friedman Economist tells you. This position may be government funded, but it strikes me very similar to a valet. I worked as a valet in downtown SF hotels where space is at a premium. People paid me to park their car because I could park cars like no body’s business, putting cars where one would assume a car could not go.

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Traffic Tom Vanderbilt

How We Drive is the companion blog to Tom Vanderbilt’s New York Times bestselling book, Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us), published by Alfred A. Knopf in the U.S. and Canada, Penguin in the U.K, and in languages other than English by a number of other fine publishers worldwide.

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