Rush Hour in Japan

a few films, notes, and a map help us dive into cycling, walking & efficient commute routes in Osaka and Takamatsu

Recently, I found myself in the middle of a rush hour that was impossible to ignore. So I quickly pulled out a camera and filmed it. To start this edition of The Possible City off, please enjoy slowly meditating to this peaceful two minutes of morning commute traffic in Osaka.

Honest. It is actually peaceful…

At this time of morning, the scene is very similar on nearly every street in the neighborhood. There are no sidewalks, no parked cars allowed, and the number of pedestrians far outstrip cars on all of the interior roads and alleys. As a result, everything flows smoothly.

This is a common daily view for anyone making their way through the business districts of most major Japanese cities in the mornings. However, as someone who grew up commuting an hour plus in Silicon Valley traffic — and really, for anyone else who suffers traffic — this particular commute deserves note. This scene made me smile, while also kind of hitting me upside the head and screaming ‘your commute in Silicon Valley was ridiculous’.

Thinking back to my Silicon Valley days, I pictured how this scene would change if every one of the people walking above through this narrow cross street were in a car. At the very least, people would be moving much slower. A more likely scenario is that the street would be transformed into a honking, fuming traffic hell where everyone was in a bad mood and no one was getting where they wanted to go. Thankfully, that is not the story here.

Highlighting the relative calm and quiet of foot-based transportation, the few motor vehicles that do move through the scene above are actually somewhat startling. Again one’s imagination might multiply that difference across an entire city. How does a city sound and feel differently, when it is filled primarily with pedestrians and bicycles? This question is worth digging into, as are the wealth of studies that link traffic noise with increased risk of depression, heart attacks, and other cardiovascular issues. We might also mention here, the immense health benefits of walking and cycling. I don’t think a barrage of links to those studies is necessary.

We know a whole lot about what happens when the majority of car traffic disappears, and we also know how to make it happen. But still, some may feel that this street in Osaka is perhaps an isolated instance, only applicable to cities with large dense populations and immense mass transit systems. I get that instinct. Osaka is a great success story in terms of public transit, especially when it comes to rail. The city has multiple metro subway, commuter train, and bus lines interconnecting every nook of the city with the wider region. This metro system carries many of those in the video above from their home to a place where they can indeed walk to work.

It might seem then, that a flood of pedestrians requires a huge city and accompanying mass transit system.

But does it?

TAKAMATSU AND THE SHOTENGAI

To help answer that question, the next day I find myself Takamatsu, a city of just 250,000 people on the island of Shikoku. Compared to Osaka, this city is relatively isolated from Japan’s main island and from adjoining population centers. With the exception of a few rail lines, it also does not have the dense regional transit networks and metro rail of Osaka. Naturally, I wonder how the morning commute would look in this much smaller city.

This is what I found...

There are two scenes in this second film.

The first shows morning commute traffic on the main shotengai running through central Takamatsu. The next shows one of the numerous outlets of the same shotengai.

Possibly due to the lack of high-density metro system, you notice far more bicycles in the Takamatsu commute. Of course, one of the secrets of cycling is that given the right infrastructure, a bicycle can easily take someone the distance of several subway stops with similar transit times, yet without the need for the actual subway.

What infrastructure is in place here in Takamatsu to help that happen? A long, covered shopping street. In the urban districts of many Japanese cities, streets called shotengai — shopping streets that are often covered, protected from weather, and closed to cars in daytime hours — offer similar utility to what a metro system would in a larger city.

But they also offer far more than just a transit path. By careful arrangement of how these streets are used at different times, the needs of an amazingly diverse number of people are served within a single, relatively narrow physical space.

A typical day on such a shotengai might look like this:

    6am — 9am / Commute: shops closed, bikes allowed, no cars
    9am — 6pm / Commerce: shops open, pedestrians only (no bikes or cars)
    6pm — 9pm / Commute: few shops open, bikes allowed, no cars
    Late pm — Early am / Loading & Delivery: shops closed, open to local traffic

We see this kind of shift in use employed in commercial districts elsewhere in the world, but not often to the extent seen in Japan. Here, the shopping street caters not only to the needs of the businesses and daytime shoppers, but also offers shelter and safe passage to people passing through who choose active human-powered modes of transportation — that last point is a critical key for regenerative cities.

All of this creates a tangential commercial opportunity too, for many of those cycling and pedestrian commuters will make their way back here around noon to eat, or after work to shop.

But what about cyclists who are not part of the 9-5 job lifestyle? Where do they go in mid-day, when the main shopping street is closed to bicycles?

In the central business districts, there is often a second covered street that runs parallel to the main shopping street. This secondary street caters mainly to evening dining, drinking, and entertainment establishments. These ‘nightlife’ streets are typically quiet during the mid-day, making them convenient and safe routes for bicycles when the main shopping street is closed to cyclists. After 6pm or so, foot traffic again shifts to these ‘nightlife’ streets, and the daytime shopping streets again become something of an evening commute route for cyclists and pedestrians.

This shift is a general observation, not a strictly adhered-to rule, but it tends to follow this kind of pattern. The importance is in space efficiency, adapting a single space to serve multiple uses for multiple kinds of people at different times of day.

During commute time, these covered shopping streets easily move as many people as a subway — or a vehicle road of ridiculous width — yet they also host pedestrian shoppers, street cafes, and various events outside of those times. Quite an efficient use of space.

A reasonable city considers the design and use of streets in ways that serve diverse needs of residents and businesses, while also prioritizing active, healthy, environmentally-friendly modes of movement through the city.

Are there examples of this where you live? If so, it would be lovely to have you share them below, or send a note to me at thepossiblecity@substack.com

If you are new here, you might want to read the first story from this Reasonable Urbanism recipe book:

Reasonable Urbanism: Big Parks That Embrace the City

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See you next time.