Actual Use of Station Buildings from the Viewpoint of Station Users' Circulation Behavior

- JR Wakayama Station as a Case Study -

Abstract

This study clarified the actual conditions of use of station buildings and the actual conditions of users' circulation, using JR Wakayama Station as a case study in order to examine the station building as the starting point of the station town space. The most popular stores are restaurants, bookstores, character goods, household goods, and drugstores. Regarding the actual conditions of users' circulation, we found that the number of people who went from ticket gates to the station building was greater than the number of people who went from the station building to the exit gates, and that people exiting from the ticket gates on the B1 and 1F were more likely to stop by a store than those exiting from the ticket gates on the 2F. It was revealed that more users of restaurants and bookstores came from the ticket gates, and more users of coffee shops came from the entrances and exits. The balanced arrangement of stores in the station building suggests that care was taken to disperse the circulation routes.