JR East mulls seats for dogs on some special Shinkansen rides

People do bring bikes on trains in Japan. The catch is that the bike must be in a bag. Many times, people use folding bicycles for journeys like this, because those bikes can be folded down into very small dimensions, no bigger than a small suitcase. For full-size bikes, those are allowed too, but must be in a bag and disassembled. People don't do this so often because it's a PITA (and is still cumbersome even when disassembled), but it is an option.

That's an interesting point. Timing isn't as important here in Sweden, but I can take my bike on the train. I've taken my bike on trains in Denmark, Germany and Sweden. And yeah sure it's off by a few minutes usually, sometimes by more than that. But I enjoy the freedom and laid back attitude more than extreme punctuality. I just realized this.

> The timing is critical on the shinkansen

Why?

Is this about needing to be on time primarily because there's a reputation to maintain, or would bad things happen if one runs late?

> A bike takes up as much space as like 4 people, if not many moor on a crowded train (although perhaps only 3 in a seating-room only train like the Shinkansen)

A single bike in isolation, maybe, but a proper bike rack (as seen on many European trains) can fit several bikes in that same space; furthermore you might be able to use space that isn't suitable for carrying passengers (e.g. the UK HSTs carry bicycles in the crumple zones where it wouldn't be safe for passengers to be).

> When you consider that, taking a bike on a train is decidedly environmentally unfriendly.

That's going a bit far; even if we assume it really is displacing three or four other people, three or four people's worth of train emissions on an electric train like this is still comfortably less than one car making the same journey.

> When you consider that, taking a bike on a train is decidedly environmentally unfriendly.

Framing it like that, taking a suitcase on the train is environmentally unfriendly. Or taking your own body on it.

The alternative to taking your bike on the train may be that you hail a taxi on the other end of the ride rather than ride to your destination. Or that you choose to drive to your destination so you can put the bike in a bike-rack on your car, rather than take public transit.

It's not as clear-cut as "decidedly environmentally unfriendly" to me at least.

Some folding bikes fit between the backs of seats. It's pretty great.

https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Fe7LjTABOkA/UlebTVDjtTI/AAAAAAAAc...

If you can't view the image, visualize a train compartment with rows of seats with a shared table in between them. If there isn't a table, then the back of the seats are facing each other, and it's a perfect spot to fit a folding bike.

Unfortunately, the bike has to be engineered for it. The more expensive Brompton fits, but my cheap one doesn't.

A well run train system isn't full. It has to run at a convenient frequency, which is much higher than just taking the number of passengers and dividing by the capacity of a train.

Completely agree. I love dogs but am quite allergic and imho transport infrastructure should prioritise the comfort/needs of people over their pets.

I wish the airlines would do differentiated flights (maybe adult-only or 12+ only for one flight a day on otherwise high volume route, and maybe an explicitly pet-friendly flight on a route, etc.). I live on an island, and especially now that most airlines (covid scheduling issues) have eliminated animals as checked baggage, anyone with an animal which doesn't conform to normal cabin transport is kind of screwed -- they have to use a specialty transport company, which either flies on dedicated cargo flights or something else, or they charter a plane ($5k minimum for San Juan to Miami).

My personal preference would be zero children, zero dogs, only well behaved cats, but I realize that's a niche flight preference, but on a route with hundreds of flights a week, one flight a week (or even one a month) should be easy to fill.

The bigger problem: people being allergic to dogs is quite common (above 10% of the population, I believe). I’m a dog lover and have 2 pooches that are my life, yet I am always baffled by people that feel they need to make everyone else deal with the pet they love.

99% of the time the problem is the owner in my experience. I don't like dogs near me, but I've rarely felt like the dog was the problem, it's selfish people who don't keep their dog properly leashed, close to them, and away from other people. Dogs shouldn't be on public transportation primarily because enough dog owners have shown they are unable to respect other people.

For me the problem is dogs’ unpredictability. I have a small dog, and although I believe 100% that she would never hurt a person or another animal, I still have her on a taut lead ready to yank her away when a stranger’s child wants to say hello on our walks, just in case.

I would want everyone bringing a dog on a train to be in that same level of control, and judging by the people and dogs I see out walking that’s an unreasonable wish.

I live in Japan now, and for the dogs I see in the city, the vast majority would easily pass this test.

However, from what I saw in America during the pandemic and before, the vast majority of American dogs would not.

That said, the bigger problems I see here are 1) how to deal with the bathroom problems (train trips last hours, and dogs don't hold it in very well), and 2) how to deal with peoples' allergies, and 3) how to deal with people just not wanting to ride near other peoples' animals. I think it's an insurmountable problem really, unless there's SO much demand that they can dedicate a whole train car to being pet-friendly (not likely). We already have ways of moving pets around: taxis and cars. Inside a city, just use a taxi. If you need to travel between cities, just rent a car. Yes, it's a lot of money, but if you can't afford that, then you can't afford a dog. Or just leave the dog at home. (If it's a cat, the cat doesn't want to take a trip with you anywhere.)

(edit) Finally, I just did a little research, and this isn't really a problem at all. You can already bring dogs and cats on trains here, both the intercity Shinkansen and the local trains. The catch is that it needs to be a small dog (or cat), and inside a carrier, weighing a total of 10kg or less. It looks like there's a small fee (less than $5) for the Shinkansen. So I don't see why any of this is necessary; it's a solved problem.