I Think I'm Turning Japanese

"Do you know what time it is in Japan right now? It's tomorrow. It's the future." - Rob Lowe, Thank You For Smoking

Direct from the land of Godzilla movies and Hello Kitty comes one of the most ingenious bicycle parking ideas ever imagined. Nevermind that the Japanese are lightyears ahead of us in cell phone, car, and just about every other technology that matters in the 21st century but now they're upping the anty on the one of the bike commuter's greatest challenges. A safe place to park your bike can mean the difference between doing your part to save the planet or catching the subway home in full lycra. Anybody who's familiar with the NYC Subway system will recognize the metro-style cards that engage the door opening. This video is unbelievable. The whole system looks like the beginning of Johnny Depp's Willy Wonka. I feel like it should play the crazy factory music from Pee Wee's Big Adventure. I can't understand a word that anybody's saying but hey, that never stopped me from watching seemingly endless hours of "Most Extreme Elimination Challenge".

Don't worry, even if you do ride the rail with lycra, you're still not the weirdest person on the train. I guarantee it.

Comments

[Amanda]

Wow! That is FANTASTIC! (If only we could get something like that in Columbus...)

[Paul]

I love MXC. That show rocks!

[Steve]

It starts off with a location stating today at(tokyo station) japan I cant get the rest of it but it breaks it down into how there are alot of crowded bikes, so they came up with a pay for storage that is secure(looks like it was adapted from the car parking that is similar). Then it goes on to explain in more detail the system and how it works with people commenting on it at the end. The price is about 1 dollar a day, then for 1 month it costs about 18 dollars a month. The only problem is that it still doesnt get rid of all the bikes people never return to pick up and use again, but they explained a bit about using tickets that are attached currently then after that the bikes are taken to be recycled/stored after a period of time. Id say half the bikes at any subway parking over here just taking up space since the owners never come back, they just dump the bikes there.