Japan launched a \u201cblue ticket\u201d system on April 1 allowing the police to crack down on cycling violations such as using smartphones while riding as the country toughens its measures to curb accidents amid a cycling boom.<\/p>\n
The system under the revised Road Traffic Act targets a total of 113 relatively minor violations with fines of up to 12,000 yen (S$97). They range from ignoring traffic lights and stop signs to entering closed railroad crossings and riding on sidewalks. It applies to people aged 16 and older.<\/p>\n
Under the law, police are allowed to bypass written or verbal warnings and immediately fine people for high-risk offences that can cause accidents.<\/p>\n
The maximum 12,000 yen fine is set for distracted cycling, which covers not only making phone calls while riding but also staring at a screen fixed on a bicycle phone mount.<\/p>\n
Other offences expected to result in immediate fines without warning include entering a railway crossing while its barriers are lowered, with a penalty of 7,000 yen, and riding fixed-gear bicycles and other brakeless bikes, with a 5,000 yen penalty.<\/p>\n
Other violations will generally result in prior warnings, unless they are particularly egregious.<\/p>\n
Riding on the sidewalk can result in a 6,000 yen fine unless under certain circumstances, such as when it is explicitly allowed or when the road is dangerous and unsuitable for cycling.<\/p>\n
Cycling while holding an umbrella or wearing earphones that block outside noise can incur a 5,000 yen penalty.<\/p>\n
For 24 more serious offences, including riding while heavily intoxicated and riding recklessly, cyclists are given red tickets that require investigations and can lead to criminal procedures.<\/p>\n
Distracted cycling can also result in a red ticket if it has caused a dangerous traffic situation. KYODO NEWS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Japan launched a \u201cblue ticket\u201d system on April 1 allowing the police to crack down on cycling violations…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":574181,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-574180","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-cycling","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=574180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574180\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/574181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=574180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=574180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=574180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}