> not all of Tokyo is like this; it seems like every time I run into someone online who lives here, they completely forget that Ariake/Odaiba exists, or maybe they've never been there. There are a lot of places where you can't really take a side street because the geography prevents it, so cyclists are forced to divert to main streets for some distance (like over bridges) where they then share the sidewalk with pedestrians.
Ariake/Odaiba you just can't reasonably cycle at all IMO - e.g. you're simply not allowed to cycle across the Rainbow Bridge or through either of the Tokyo Minato tunnels (neither in the traffic lanes nor on the pavement) so if you're coming from the west you have to go 5-10km out of your way before you even start. I tried to go to the cycling course on Wakasu once and gave up, and I'm a pretty confident/experienced cyclist who can usually handle tangling with road traffic. Rather than it being a success story of cycling on pavements / segregated cycling infrastructure, I would bet that the mode share of cycling in Ariake/Odaiba is just a whole lot worse than Tokyo in general.
>Ariake/Odaiba you just can't reasonably cycle at all IMO - e.g. you're simply not allowed to cycle across the Rainbow Bridge or through either of the Tokyo Minato tunnels
People cycle in Odaiba and Ariake all the time. Have you never been there?
No, they're not crossing the Rainbow Bridge, but they don't need to. They live in Ariake and cycle around it just fine. There's no need to cross the Sumida with a bike for most people.
>I would bet that the mode share of cycling in Ariake/Odaiba is just a whole lot worse than Tokyo in general.
It sounds like you've never been to Ariake. There's tons of bikes, and lots of bike parking at the various destinations there. You don't seem to realize that a lot of people actually live in (or close to) Ariake. Take a look at a satellite view on Google Maps: those big towers next to Ariake Gardens mall are housing towers. People live there. And people live in other parts of Koto-ku and cycle to Ariake, because it's close by bike. There's wide sidewalks and even actual bike lanes (separate from the road) in some places. But there's probably no one trying to cycle regularly between Ariake and the west side of the Sumida, but that doesn't make Ariake "un-cyclable".
Man, I almost put a bunch of caveats in my last post to pre-empt this, but I assumed you were going to engage constructively rather than just attacking me. Yes, I've been to Ariake, more times than I can count. Have you never been to the rest of Tokyo?
> People cycle in Odaiba and Ariake all the time.
I saw fewer and emptier bike parking areas than on the "mainland", and fewer people cycling around.
> those big towers next to Ariake Gardens mall are housing towers. People live there.
Some people do sure. The fact remains that it's a lot less residential than most of Tokyo.
> But there's probably no one trying to cycle regularly between Ariake and the west side of the Sumida, but that doesn't make Ariake "un-cyclable"
Well, I was actually a person trying to cycle regularly between Ariake and Meguro at one point, so there was at least one, but it simply wasn't practical. No, one poor connection doesn't make a place un-cycleable, but it's indicative.
I'm not trying to attack you; sorry if I seemed harsh. My whole point was that there are parts of Tokyo that are not like the (generally much older) parts you're thinking of. Next time you're at the mall there, check out the bike parking garage next to the AEON entrance (on the east side). Of course, the people living at the towers don't bike to the mall, since they live right next to it, but my whole point is that these places aren't "un-cyclable" just because they're not cyclable between two random points (which happen to be separated by a huge river where it empties into the bay). Your whole claim that Ariake is un-cyclable seems to come from the assumption that everyone lives west of the river, which just isn't true: lots of people live in Koto-ku and Edagawa-ku, and many parts of those are bikable to Ariake. To be sure, living in that part of Tokyo does separate you from the parts west of the river in many ways, especially by bicycle. But still, many people live in these parts and ride bikes every day there. They just don't ride to Meguro :-)
AFAICT, most cyclists in Tokyo do not ride long distances at all: they use their bikes to ride around their local neighborhood, and especially to get groceries. I've met a bunch of people who told me the only time they ride a bike is to get groceries, in fact. They don't use their bikes to ride halfway across the city; they use the trains for that. People who ride long distances seem to be pretty abnormal.
OK, so I've resorted to actually looking it up: Toyosu has 4.2% cycling mode share, and Ariake has 2.1%. The figure for 23-ku as a whole is usually said to be around 13%, and the figures for other parts of Koto-ku seem compatible with that (e.g. 15% for Kameido). https://www.city.koto.lg.jp/650102/documents/030322boumachis... , page 15.
Ariake/Odaiba you just can't reasonably cycle at all IMO - e.g. you're simply not allowed to cycle across the Rainbow Bridge or through either of the Tokyo Minato tunnels (neither in the traffic lanes nor on the pavement) so if you're coming from the west you have to go 5-10km out of your way before you even start. I tried to go to the cycling course on Wakasu once and gave up, and I'm a pretty confident/experienced cyclist who can usually handle tangling with road traffic. Rather than it being a success story of cycling on pavements / segregated cycling infrastructure, I would bet that the mode share of cycling in Ariake/Odaiba is just a whole lot worse than Tokyo in general.