Search

In this paper, we examined and confirmed the effectiveness of public involvement in improving accessibility in three selected railway projects. These are the Hankyu-Itami Station project, Fukuoka Nanakuma Subway project, and Sendai Tozai Subway project. As we had already previously analyzed the approaches and processes of the three projects through stakeholder interviews and literature reviews, we next carried out a satisfaction survey to collect passengers' voices, including both persons with and without mobility difficulties. Through the survey, we found that passengers with mobility difficulties benefit more from accessible facilities that have been planned via public involvement. We also found that accessible facilities continue to provide barrier-free and universal design access over time. Judging from our findings, we support the view that public involvement is an effective approach to improving satisfaction in the usability of barrier-free and universal design facilities.

Since after the enactment of a series of accessible laws, accessibility in public spaces in Japan has improved. Many creative initiatives have also been introduced in addition to these conventional facilities. In Sapporo, the city introduced a "special seat system" to the subway instead of the more common "priority seats." In Fukuoka, the local transportation bureau introduced a Braille block with wheelchair crossing points so that wheelchair users could cross them with ease when boarding the train. In Sendai, the Transport Bureau introduced wide entrance/exit gates to enable all passengers, including wheelchair users and others to pass through the gates more easily. What is common to them is that they required only a simple modification of existing systems, and that they were implemented by the bold decisions of transportation operators who lent an ear to users' voices as possible solutions. There is still ample room to improve accessibility in public spaces by examining the actual usage and status of relevant measures in Japan.

The concept of accessibility has been widely used in the transportation field, commonly to evaluate transportation planning options. The fundamental hypothesis of many studies related to accessibility could be “greater accessibility leads to more travel”. However, several studies have shown inconsistent results given this common hypothesis, finding instead that accessibility is independent of the trip/tour frequency. In addition, empirical aggregate urban modeling applications commonly produce either non-significant or negative (wrong sign) relationships between accessibility and the trip/tour frequency. For this reason, many practitioners rarely incorporate a measure of accessibility into trip/tour generation models out of consideration of the induced demand. In this context, this study examined the effect of accessibility in urban and suburban residences on the maintenance and discretionary activity tour frequencies of the elderly and the non-elderly using household travel survey data collected in the Seoul Metropolitan Area of Korea. The major finding of this study is that a higher density of land use and better quality of transportation service do not always lead to more tours due to the presence of intra-household interactions, trip chaining, and different travel needs by activity type. This finding implies that accessibility-related studies should not unquestioningly accept the common hypothesis when they apply accessibility measures to evaluate their transportation planning options or incorporate them into their trip/tour generation models.

This chapter first explores migration-related urban issues and then illustrates migration dynamics. It further points out the limitations of existing migration theories. To overcome the shortcomings of existing theories, this chapter presents a new analysis framework for migration, where multiple life choices, including migration, are simultaneously incorporated by expanding the theory of planned behavior. To empirically confirm the applicability of the new framework, a web-based questionnaire survey about migration associated with employment, dwellings and child rearing was implemented in Japan in 2015. This is the first study to reveal such interrelated behavioral changes in multiple life domains from the perspective of decision-making process. Such a theoretical reformulation could provide more scientific insights into cross-sectoral policies of migration than existing theories.

Streetcar stops in some Japanese cities lack safety barriers, which has led to fatal accidents. As a result, urgent safety measures are required. This study evaluates a safety system using ITS technologies for streetcar stops without safety barriers in Kochi. We conducted a questionnaire survey of car drivers and streetcar users. The safety system made car drivers pay more attention to streetcar users and decreased the level of anxiety among streetcar users. To avoid conflicts between cars and streetcar users at the streetcar stops, boarding and alighting from right-side doors with a self-service fare collection system was also investigated.

This paper discusses two maps which display safety and enjoyability information for bicycle users in Utsunomiya and Chigasaki cities, respectively located in the north and south of the Kanto area of Japan. The Utsunomiya map covers 5 square kilometers and the Chigasaki map covers about 35 square kilometers. In Japan, bicycles are generally used for daily transportation needs, but the bicycle infrastructure is still insufficient. Therefore, in order to promote bicycle use as a healthy and environmentally-friendly transportation mode, bicycle maps which provide safety information for the existing road network of cities are required. The Utsunomiya and Chigasaki maps, which provide this type of information, were developed to further the discussion over road network evaluation methods, and also to confirm the possibility of simultaneously providing safety and enjoyability information designed to promote bicycle use. The Utsunomiya map (Map 1) was experimentally designed to promote bicycle use. It incorporates the evaluation results and provides additional information using an original layering system. The Chigasaki map (Map 2a, 2b) was widely distributed so that its evaluation methodology could be improved to realize greater objectivity; a questionnaire survey was also conducted to identify future areas for map improvement. These evaluation methodologies and map designs will be helpful in designing cycle maps in other cities.

This paper describes the development, estimation, and interpretation of a simultaneous structural equations model relating sociodemographics, household interactions in daily in-home and out-of-home physical and virtual activity participation, social interactions (measured by with whom the activities are performed), use of telecommunication, and travel behavior. The model is unique in its simultaneous representation of each decision maker's choices about participation patterns for solo and joint with-whom in-home and out-of-home physical and virtual activities, and the complex set of structural relationships among such patterns, and household and individual sociodemographics. The empirical model was estimated by using data from a recent 2-day activity and travel diary survey conducted in the Cairo, Egypt, region. The results highlight the influence of sociodemographics, household traditions, beliefs, social roles, and lifestyle on individuals’ solo- and joint-activity patterns. Furthermore, the results showed a significant trade-off between joint and solo participation for both in-home and out-of-home activity participation. In contrast, significant complementary relationships were found between joint in-home virtual activities and joint out-of-home activities. Furthermore, this study provides another justification for the holistic and comprehensive approach to studying the interrelationships between information and communication technologies and household interactions in daily activity and travel behavior. The results revealed complementary relationships between joint activity participation and telecommunication use. These results have important implications for estimation and forecasting of activity travel demand, given the significant household interaction patterns, especially for people of Cairo.

Generally, travel is considered a demand derived from the desire to engage in activities at destinations and travel time is also considered a wasteful time. However, if people can engage in activities while travelling, travel time is not just a wasteful time but could be a productive time. In recent years, ICTs provide travellers with various activity opportunities while travelling. This paper examined what activities train commuters were engaging in while travelling and what factors of travel environment and passengers’ characteristics caused the difference in activities conducted and desired. Through on-board observation and questionnaire surveys, we found that difference in travelling mode (standing, sitting in normal/high-grade/extra-high-grade trains), the length of in-vehicle time and type of work hours affected the participation rate of different types of activities. Train environment with wider personal space and more secure privacy would induce activities restricted in the current travel environment and some commuters prefer to pay extra money to obtain it.

We developed the Regional Bus Information System, which provide information on time when the last bus left the bus stop.The system is much more inexpensive in introduction and operation than traditional bus location systems. It helps passengers to make decisions whether waiting for the next bus or traveling by other travel modes. From the observation survey, it was found that 6% of the buses departed a few minutes ahead of the scheduled time and 20% of passengers arrived at the bus stop only a few minutes before the scheduled time. The questionnaire survey revealed that the information system developed in this study was one of the most desired facilities located at bus stops such as roofs and benches.

Information and communications technologies (ICT) have provided people with many activity opportunities for communications in cyberspace. Mobile phones have made decisions about activity scheduling more flexible and changed travel behavior dramatically. Meeting and waiting behavior could be among the most dramatically changed behaviors since the introduction of ICT. Mobile phones allow one to reschedule appointment time and place without space–time constraints. Young people especially use mobile communications frequently and cleverly. A study was done to investigate young people's decisions about meeting and waiting behaviors and to analyze dynamic rescheduling behavior by mobile communications, in spatial and temporal dimensions. An on-site interviewing survey was conducted in Shinjuku, Tokyo, in December 2003. Information on telecommunications relating to (re)scheduling meeting time and place and on waiting behavior was obtained from 87 young pairs. Reasons for telecommunicating by mobile phone were classified into five categories: making an appointment and deciding on meeting time and place, rescheduling the meeting time, rescheduling the meeting place, informing of late arrival, and informing of the arrival and confirming current location. About half of those who were first to arrive participated in activities that were not at the agreed-on meeting place but were at other activity opportunities near the meeting place. The first arrival's activity choice behavior while waiting was affected by the frequency of visits to the town, whether he or she was considering the possible opportunities around the meeting place, and the length of the expected waiting time and the additional expected waiting time.

In recent years, expectations for bicycle have been raised as an environmental friendly travel mode. This paper investigated possibility of bicycle-commuting, reviewing a wide variety of bicycle-promoting policies in US, Europe and Japan, and analyzing the effects of bicycle-commuting enhancing measures on modal shift from car to bicycle. Current problems regarding promotion of bicycle-commuting were examined from the standpoint of private companies and local governments.

In this research, we focused on effects of public transportation with high travel time reliability on users' activity scheduling. We took up Okinawa Monorail as a recent introduction example, and conducted a questionnaire survey and an interview survey to the commuters using the monorail. We demonstrated that travel time reliability is one of major factors of the modal switching, that average travel time and travel time reliability bring changes of activity schedule and reductions of late arrivals in the morning, that there are difference among individuals about behavioral changes and that constraint conditions and that travel time variability consists of different elements which are related to different Behavioural responses to the variability.

In this paper, we propose a bicycle-parking system operated by a subway company. Interview surveys show that the parking system can be more efficient than that operated by a local government. A parking choice model estimated with SP survey and the scenario analysis show that the “place”, “regularity” and “fee” of the parking are important for the profitability of the system. A payment method choice model and the scenario analysis show that cooperation with a retail store next to the parking makes the system more profitable.

The objective of the study is to analyze information acquisition and activity-travel patterns in traveling by walk and public transport through an experiment of implementing an activity program. It was examined when, where and how respondents used information by PHS spatio-temporal data and information diary survey. The process of activity scheduling and rescheduling, and information acquisition behavior were described in detail. The frequency of referencing a map was high for searching current location and travel route on road and in buildings. Pedestrian navigation system guiding a route of minimum distance in traveling multiple destinations could decrease travel distances.

This article explores the phenomenon of companionship as an adaptation strategy to counter the existing barriers to health care access in developing nations. Companionship is argued to be an outcome of "inter" and "intra" household collaboration to offer diverse supports in addition to altruism. The analysis of the household survey conducted in West Bengal, India, exhibited different patterns of health care tours and the associated dependencies. In addition to support in terms of mobility while traveling and companionship while waiting for the opportunity, support in terms of refuge is also found to be essential, especially for the poor while they undertake regional tours. Causal models focusing on aggregated general health tours and specific regional tours were estimated separately to comprehend the implicit social interactions and their effects on the patient as well as the companions. The research demonstrated that accessibility barriers affect not only the ill, but also those associated with them and at times adversely. Segregation of regional tours illustrated the gaps, which instigated such tours and also might aid in health infrastructure planning as a whole.

By Nobuaki OHMORI Yasunori MUROMACHI Noboru HARATA Katsutoshi OHTA For aged society, it is important to provide user-friendly transport environment. We calculated travel time and generalized time to measure accessibility to general hospitals, and analyzed if aged people can do out-of-home activity within his daily time-space constraint, using their time use data. We simulated the change of accessibility after moving of a hospital from the center to the suburbs and the effect of improvement of transportation and activity service. As a result, accessibility gets worse. It is difficult to maintain the present accessibility only by improving of transportation service, and it is more useful to improve activity service leve

There is, however, limited knowledge of how precisely the needs of disabled people are defined and incorporated, or not, into the design and development for the accessible environment [1]. This study assumes that the accessible design in public places facilities are of benefit not only to disabled people but all people with the diversity. Thus the significance of the proposed barrier-free design is to focus on benefits of the accessible plan to a variety of people. Accessibility in public places has previously been regarded as an additional services designed especially for those who cannot manage ordinary facilities. Now to design accessible environment in public places is an important issue to maintain the sustainability of our society [1]. Therefore this paper aims to investigate the barriers and deficiencies for disable people found in railway station and then to provide valuable information on effective design techniques and principles for ensuring barrier-free accessible environment in public places.