Route 19

Dead Man's Curve, I can hear them say:
Won't come back from Dead Man's Curve.

- The Carpenters

Between the cities of Matsumoto and Shiojiri lie three towns: Hirooka, where I live; Murai; and Minami-Matsumoto. Flanked on the east and west by mountains, this area is a uniform, densly-populated strip connected by a commuter rail line, and Route 19.

Spanning roughly twelve feet at its widest point, Route 19 ferries a constant stream of cars, scooters, transport trucks, motorcycles and other miscellenous wheeled vehicles to and from Matsumoto. Rather than having specific rush hours, Route 19 maintains a steady state of what can best be descibed as high-speed congestion. The road is prone to construction every couple of days, which reduces traffic to one lane, and effectively makes Route 19 about as wide as a screen door.

When Chris and I decided to go to Toys R Us in Murai, we naturally chose to bike along the 8-inch sidewalks of Route 19. That way, we could get there in only about ten minutes, provided we didn't get postponed by construction or death.

The trip was fairly uneventful at first. I was leading since my bike has a headlight, and it wasn't impossible to stay on the sidewalk (you don't want to venture onto the road itself; that's a good way to get squished in any number of ways). We wound our way along the twists and turns of Route 19, keeping a respectable hand's-width between us and the transport trucks. Suddenly, though, a young woman in a white car pulled out of her driveway onto the sidewalk to wait for the traffic to subside. She did this without looking to her left, which was inconvenient since I was only about 5 feet away.

I immediately gripped my brakes (one of which is actually connected) but the ground was slick with rain, so I ended up skidding sideways coming to a rest parallel to the car. It was then that the driver decided to check her left side (hey, safety first) and saw this big white guy leaning on her door. I think I said something that doesn't really translate into Japanese.

After I peeled myself off of the Toyota, Chris and I continued on until we reached a point where Route 19 intersects the highway that goes to Matsumoto airport. The sidewalk stops at a set of stairs that takes you down to a tunnel underneath the intersection. Although we could theoretically have pulled onto the road and crossed with the traffic lights, we didn't want to tempt fate. Instead, we chose to go down the stairs. Since there was a 8-inch-wide wheelchair ramp (why is it so small? Who owns a wheelchair that size?) we wisely elected to give this a try on our bikes.

And immediately regretted it.

The ramp was a bit steeper that we had initially judged, so we basically flew down the stairs. About three-quarters of the way down, when I was approaching the speed of sound, it occurred to me that there better not be anyone in a wheelchair at the bottom of that ramp. Additionally, we had to be careful not to stray off the ramp, since our bikes wouldn't work very well on the stairs.

As for Route 19, well, winter's coming-- once that road gets covered with some ice and snow I'll have even more stuff to write about. In the mean time, I'm thinking of maybe getting my brakes fixed. I hear there's a bike shop up in Murai.

Ryan Burkett
Nov 19, 2000