MonkeyBoy wrote:

> How does this law apply to mothers riding with children on their
> bikes?  I occasionally see a mom with two and even three kids on
> bikes!  They ride like bats outta hell too :-)

It seems to be unequivocally OK, so long as the bike is properly
specified for it (eg child seats, and presumably a tandem would be fine
too) BUT the children must be under 6 (um...no older than 6?) and the
driver 16 or more.

But anyway, it is quite clear that our problem is not about laws or
rules per se: rules and laws are routinely broken all over the place
here, with plenty of tacit and even explicit approval, and the law that
we are breaking is an utterly trivial one that has never been enforced
to my knowledge in Japan (and I know of quite a lot of keen tandemers
who have lived here for many years in total, including one couple who
commuted to work by tandem). It's all about strange people behaving
_differently_. If we were riding on the pavement (or the wrong side of
the road) with no lights at night, no-one would give a shit, so long as
we were riding single bikes.

James