Police issued 15,919 blue tickets to cyclists nationwide in the six months from April, when the traffic violation notification system was extended to bicycles, the National Police Agency said. The figure is provisional.
Accidents involving bicycles fell 9.1% from the same period last year. The agency said the new system may be one reason, pointing to a rise in safety awareness among cyclists. The drop suggests the tickets are changing behavior, not only punishing it.
Blue tickets — 青切符 (aokippu) — are an administrative procedure for relatively minor violations. A rider who pays the fine is not subject to criminal punishment. The system applies to cyclists aged 16 and over.
What riders were ticketed for
The tickets covered 18 kinds of violation. Using a phone or other device while riding — known in Japan as ながら運転 (nagara unten) — was the most common at 6,904 cases, or 43.4% of the total.
- Using a phone or other device while riding: 6,904 (43.4%)
- Failing to stop at a designated stop sign: 5,559 (34.9%)
- Running a red light: 1,374 (8.6%)
- Entering a level crossing while the barrier is down: 1,155 (7.3%)
- Riding on the right-hand side of the road, against traffic: 375 (2.4%)
Those five categories accounted for 96.5% of all tickets. Violations tied to riding on sidewalks were far fewer: 143 for failing to slow down as required, and 18 for riding on a sidewalk where bicycles are not permitted.
Wide gaps between prefectures
The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department issued the most tickets, at 2,977, followed by Osaka with 2,853, Saitama with 1,893 and Aichi with 1,725 — prefectures that contain large cities.
Numbers were far lower elsewhere. Yamagata, Mie, Tokushima and Nagasaki each recorded one, Yamaguchi two and Kumamoto three. The agency's figures show wide variation across the country.