2023 Volume 79 Issue 11 Article ID: 22-00334
In recent years, especially in local cities, there has been a debate on whether residents should participate in road maintenance and management with a sense of ownership against financial challenges. This movement is significant for roads familiar to residents, i.e., community roads. In order to develop a sense of ownership, it is essential to understand the value that residents place on community roads. This study attempts to understand the value consciousness of residents living in a local city toward community roads. We surveyed monitors (n=1,039) of a research company living in three prefectures in the Tokai region to determine the values they seek from community roads. The results showed that residents in local cities place importance on safety, security, ease of use, and passage for vulnerable road users such as the elderly, children, and the disabled as values of community roads. The results also showed that a high level of awareness of these values was not correlated with a high level of awareness of the parties involved in the maintenance and management of the road but rather with a high level of intention that the road should be maintained and managed under the initiative of the government.
