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Traffic wise

Posted on April 22, 2025 by Ella

We’ve seen very few stop signs anywhere here.

Stop

Drivers and cyclists keep to the left, pedestrians keep to the right.

There are lots of small one lane roads – really just one lane shared by two way traffic. No stop signs or traffic lights at intersections on these small streets. Whoever gets to the intersection first goes first but if you are not sure, then yield to the car coming from the left. Cars always yield to pedestrians. Bicycles, on the other hand, well, just watch out.

On large roads, there are traffic lights to control traffic.

On all large roads, there are embedded aides for the blind. They are tactile indicators that help the visually challenged to keep from veering into the street and to know where there is a traffic light (and therefore a pedestrian crossing.

AIDS for visually challenged

4 thoughts on “Traffic wise”

  1. Henry Shapiro says:
    April 22, 2025 at 12:39 pm

    Interesting, as that is the shape of a “yield” sign.

    Reply
    1. Ella says:
      April 23, 2025 at 7:46 am

      According to one source, Japan has always distinguished itself from other countries as far as road signs go. And a lot of other things too. But they weren’t a,ways triangles or red. In the 1950s, yellow octagons. 1960s, changed the color to red. And 1963, in preparation for the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo, switched to red inverted triangles.

      Reply
  2. Wynette says:
    April 23, 2025 at 6:57 am

    Do you mean the bicycles should watch out for the cars or the pedestrians should watch up for the bicycles? The latter is certainly the case here in Spain.

    Reply
    1. Ella says:
      April 23, 2025 at 7:50 am

      Yes 😀. The bicycles have their own lanes on almost every road we’ve seen in Kyoto but they zip in and out everywhere. Pedestrians have to look out for them but they are also very good at swerving around and fast braking so they are watching out for walkers also.

      Reply

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