2020 Volume 76 Issue 1 Pages 1-9
The purpose of this research is to examine the effectiveness of using bicycles, especially electric assisted bicycles, for evacuation from the Nankai Trough earthquake and its accompanying tsunami, which is an urgent issue in Japan. Multi-agent simulation (MAS) was used as the verification method, and the target city was the Aburatsu district of Nichinan City, Miyazaki Prefecture (daytime population of about 8000). As a result of the simulation, evacuation with a electric assisted bicycle not only raises the possibility of evacuees themselves being saved, but also reduces the share of evacuation by cars, so it reduces the probability of traffic congestion and the severity of congestion. We also obtained the result that the evacuation completion rate of evacuees by cars is also increased. Also evacuation in ordinary bicycles (“MamaChari” etc.), which is not an electric assisted bicycle, also has a high rate of evacuation completion. Therefore, this study suggests that not only walking and automobiles but also bicycles should be considered when the national and local governments envision means to evacuate from future tsunamis.
