Abstract
Japanese local cities have been literally transformed in the last decade. Increased automobile ownership and suburban development are perhaps the most notable features of this transformation. Rapid changes in these features in the same period suggest that there is the close relationship between them and that automobiles have great advantages over transit.
In Matsuyama we made two investigation studies to examine these suggestions. One was an accessbility study and the other was a land use study. This paper shows the results of them.
The contents of the advantages shown in the accessibility study are as follows. The average of trip length is so short that people can drive easily. Transit passengers are obliged to take much access time and waiting time in addition to the travelling time, which is usually longer in case of transit than automobiles. The figure of transit network is organized in a radial pattern with poor loop lines against a dense road network. Transit fares are expensive.
In suburban area we can see many tracts where auto drivers can have high accessibility against low accessibility of transit passengers. The results of the land use study show that the amount of sites developed in such tracts was more than half of the total amount of them developed in the study area between 1970 and 1976. We can see the lower density development in the area where automobiles have more advantages and the higher density development in the area where they have less advantages.
