A Fukuokan's Notes from Sapporo

The other day, as my usual, I went to the city centre by bike .

When I entered a bike-parking space, a custodian of the site came to me with a big smile on his face, saying  “Today,  we don’t charge you (JPY100 per bike per day) for parking your bike here ” and handed me a plastic chip;

“keep this as your ticket”.

I thought Fukuoka city was celebrating something (the new mayor?) and this was a part of the celebrations.

In fact, it turned out  a part of a campaign intended to promote something called “No Mycar Day” which was designed to encourage you to reserve from driving=less CO2 emission=make Fukuoka more “eco-friendly” (should I say “discourage you from driving” ?).

Every Friday, instead of cars, you are supposed to use public transportation, bike, or your foot, to go anywhere. If you take part in this scheme, there are some rewards: the underground offers discounted underground pass (an equivalent of your Mega Rider (probably—I will accept any objection) at JPY500, JPY100 cheaper than usual) on Fridays. And at restaurants or shops which join the scheme, you will be given a free drink or extra service. I haven’t been able to find out how I can probe that I didn’t drive to get there and what kinds of services are available in detail, though. 

Despite these endeavours, like most of the city hall’s campaigns, this scheme doesn’t seem to have  worked as the bureaucrats expected, or people don’t bother to be eco-friendly. Roads were as congested as on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, or on Thursdays.