She may be old, but she’s got all the time in the world.
A while back, an elderly Japanese woman was spotted driving her compact Toyota Vitz hatchback not on the street, but on the sidewalk. That’s obviously not how things are supposed to be done. The sidewalk is for people, and cars belong on the road. Pretty simple, right?
However, this week Japanese Twitter user @Mura_OOO and his friends were out for a drive in Kanagawa Prefecture when they spotted what, in the mind of the “motorist” on camera, is arguably a gray area.
Shot in the vicinity of Takai Daigaku-mae Station in the town of Hadano, the video shows almost no traffic at all ahead of @Mura_OOO’s car. We say “almost” though, because there’s one motor vehicle in front of him: a senior citizen riding a mobility scooter.
With the car just barely creeping along, one of @Mura_OOO’s friends, who’s inside the car, asks how fast they’re moving. “The speedometer says zero kilometers per hour,” responds @Mura_OOO. “We’re not going fast enough for it to register anything.” At one point, a pedestrian walking in the opposite direction appears on the sidewalk, and their their steps seemingly produce greater forward velocity than the scooter @Mura_OOO is stuck behind.
In recent years, Japanese cities have been encouraging people to stop riding their bicycles on the sidewalk (which was common in many communities) and instead ride in the street. However, mobility scooters are still allowed, and legally confined, to pedestrian walkways, and even bikes are supposed to stick close to the shoulder of the road, not roll down the middle of the lane as the scooter does late in the video. Actually, the updated bike policies may not have anything to do with the elderly street scooter jockey, as one Twitter commenter chimed in to say that he’s spotted this woman several times over the years, with no choice but to follow along slowly behind her as she makes her way to the hot springs of the area’s Tsurumaki Onsen district.
▼ Some Twitter users were reminded of the video for Swedish musician Avicii’s “Waiting for Love”
▼ One even spliced in the music
Despite @Mura_OOO’s inability to stifle their laughter, several commenters complimented him for his considerateness in not leaning on his horn, tailgating, revving his car’s motor, or otherwise trying to intimidate the grannie (though he did refer to her as “the legendary street racer of Kanagawa” in his tweet text and jokingly said he’d “never be able to forgive her for blocking me on the racing line.” More than a few commenters also said how impressed they were at the woman’s calm demeaner and refusal to be hurried, despite the fact that she almost certainly could see that there was a car behind her by looking in the scooter’s mirrors. “I hope I can be like her someday,” said one Twitter user, but hopefully the laid-back senior opts for the safety of the sidewalk in the future.
Source: Twitter/@Mura_OOO via Hachima Kiko