We investigate serious train accident data in Japan to elucidate the causes and improve thecountermeasures for reducing serious train accidents. We deal with statistical data on serious trainaccidents in the last 19 years, including frequency, types such as derailment and crash, causes andconsequences. We review the historical trend of serious train accidents by dealing with serious accidentdata. Probability distributions for explaining the train accident data are shown. Finally, we propose thecountermeasures for preventing train accidents and try to evaluate the effectiveness of them.

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  Recently neighborhood associations for community-based disaster prevention activity are expected to drive risk communication among community members, aiming at eliminating risk-perception gap. This study formulates a game theoretical model to investigate a communication process in a neighborhood association for community-based disaster prevention activity, and illustrates that the activity guided with manuals may not be accompanied by animated risk communication, that is followed by implication that risk communication is likely to be more implementable in case it is independent of the activity. Moreover the study exhibits larger implementability of risk communication in the case that the activity level is determined by the members in the association.

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  The hollowing out of urban center by development of suburban area in most local cities, has been brought to public attention. If that situation involves some technological externality, the economy is not optimal. In this paper, we concider monopolistic competition and consumers who can purchase many commodities at a one-stop shopping, which means agglomeration of retail stores. The following result we obtained: the mecahism of technological externalities, the relation between the size of commercial area and transportation cost, and an evaluation method about the benefit of a transportation improvement.

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  The effect of removing illegally parked bicycles on bicycle user behavior is unclear. To examine the structure of illegal parking and its relation to bicycle removal, questionnaire surveys about illegally parked bicycles, their removal, the places where removed bikes are stored, and the places where bicycle parking is currently allowed in the Tenjin area of Fukuoka City were conducted. Results of the analysis are as follows. (1) 73% of current users of bicycle parking facilities had parked illegally before using parking facilities; it is thought such users were successfully convinced to start using the parking facilities. (2) The relationship between bicycle removal and parking behavior following removal was formularized and explanation variables were estimated. (3) Rising fees for storage can potentially prevent those who have had their bicycles removed from continuing to use them. (4) More thorough bicycle removal will decrease the rate of illegal parking and increase the use of parking facilities, but the effect is not large.

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  This paper reports on the result of large-scale standard Travel Feedback Program (TFP) project, which has been conducted for more than 16,000 households in total aiming at the promotion of utilization in the Kumamoto Dentetsu Railway line. The characteristics of this study are not only to inspect the effectiveness of a variety of TFP techniques using the stated data in TFP evaluation questionnaire but also to observe the attitudes of passengers who divert their mode from car to railway actually because of TFP experience. As a result, we can specify a market segment for which the effective TFP for the promotion of railway use should be executed.

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  This paper proposes a new transportation demand management (TDM) scheme that simultaneously mitigates both queuing and flow congestion, and does not require detailed user information. This scheme is built upon the theory of “tradable bottleneck permits”(TBP), which was proposed in Akamatsu et al.(2006). We first construct a micro mechanism of the proposed scheme. Specifically, the micro mechanism consists of trading rules (auction protocol) of the TBP markets and agents’ behavior model. The former is based on auction theory and the latter is based on evolutionary game theory. We then derive day-to-day dynamics of traffic flow from the micro mechanism. By analyzing the dynamics, we prove that the dynamics converges to a socially optimal state.

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  As the sophisticated method to evaluate the benefits of infrastructural projects based on a property value method, a hedonic approach has been widely used. The application of a hedonic approach requires real estate data, which is generally spatially dependent. “Spatial hedonic approach” has been widely recognized and established in both research fields—spatial econometrics and geostatistics. However, no significant researches have evaluated the benefits of an infrastructural project using spatial hedonic approach. This study discusses the consistency in using spatial hedonic approach with the general procedure to calculate the amount of benefits. Then, the study presents empirical analyses by applying the Spatial Autoregressive Error Model (SAEM), based on the spatial econometrics approach, and the Spatial Process Model (SPM), based on the spatial statistics approach.

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  This paper confirms historical significance of Matsugi district, the most degraded area of Ashio copper mine, and the remains in it by reviewing its historical transition. The review is conducted according to subjects namely central government, Tochigi prefecture and Furukawa and so on, including new information gotten from the data Furukawa permit to use. As the result, it can be found that the transition represents not only the technologies and the environmental measures related to copper product, but also the process of the rehabilitation and the reforestation degraded lands. As findings, It is shown that Matsugi district and the remains in it have significant value as modern industrial heritages, and the synergy effects among the conservation, the restoration and the utilization of the district can be gotten by promoting their activities with comprehensive coordination.

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  Recently in Japan, some guidelines on standard planning processes or public involvement (PI) have been formulated, along with the popularization of PI introduced into infrastructure planning process. However, there are concerns that PI could not be implemented actively or the significance of introducing PI could be lost, if PI has been recognized just formally with various guidelines’ descriptions. In this study, we define these situations as passive PI caused by guidelines’ descriptions and indicate that they are on the cards with survey data. Moreover, we structuralize the problems that such passive PI is caused, and we suggest points to consider when adopting guidelines on PI.

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  Since the pioneering work of Beckmann³⁾, a considerable number of studies have been made to explain emergence of the city center in urban economics. These studies presuppose symmetric urban configuration to analyze equilibrium and social optimal. However, uniqueness and stability of the equilibrium have never been examined. For this reason, we first provide a method to examine uniqueness and stability of equilibrium solution of Beckmann&rdsquo;s model. We then disclose that equilibrium configuration is not unique and there are asymmetric equilibrium configurations. Finally, we demonstrate that urban configurations of social optimal is also asymmetric as well as symmetric.

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  The riverfront of the Kamo River in Kyoto had been an entertainment area to enjoy the cool evening breeze in summer since the Edo era. This study aims to clarify the utilization of the river area for entertainment businesses in the Meiji and Taisho period, when the river area was the government-owned land. Administrative documents at that time shows the procedure for utilization of the riverfront space and the maintenance of the river environment by the proprietors and Kyoto Pref.

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  As for the research on the traffic impact assessment in Japan, importance and problems have been studied since 1990. The law about traffic impact assessment enforced in Japan in 2000. Although many results of research are shown to date, there is almost nothing that associated these results of research comprehensively. Therefore, the research on traffic impact assessment was studied from the viewpoint of traffic and land use, and the future view of the traffic impact assessment in Japan was discussed.

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  This paper proposes the air transport market model considering airline’s network design strategy which consists of service frequency and choice of aircraft type. As for the modeling, we improve the existing bilevel market model to the model in which airlines can choose the aircraft type and adjust service frequency as well. We adopt the subgame perfect solution as the Nash equilibrium. Numerical computations which discuss the simple hub-spokes network show (i) downsizing the aircraft size depends on the difference of marginal cost between aircraft types, and the difference of passenger’s taste of flight frequency: (ii) relaxation of runway capacity at the hub airport brings downsizing the aircraft size and more service frequencies, but this change does not occur in every market.

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  Many developed countries are undergoing decreases in population. The change in population is a key factor to determine the spatial residential pattern. For the case of increasing population, Fujita¹⁾, Wheaton²⁾ and others examine the change in the spatial residential pattern, but no previous papers take account of decreasing population. This paper explores the change in the spatial residential pattern in a monocentric city according to the change in the population. Specifically, the paper examines when, where, and how the land is developed, renewed and returned to agricultural land. Conclusively, the paper shows several developing patterns, and clarifies which economic condition brings about such patterns.

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  Recently, rapid development of IT technology is greatly changing our lifestyle. Of course, shopping activity is not an exception. For example, new shopping activities such as E-Commerce (EC) appeared. It is likely that shopping activity in real space is being substituted with EC, which may cause a potential depression of city vitality. However, the situation of substitution is not clear enough. This study aims to clarify the situation of substitution considering personal behavior in real space, and the following results are drawn: 1) substitutability to cyberspace is different by personal behavior, 2) potential quantity of substitution to cyberspace in 2005 was 2.68 times per net shopper, 3) potential quantity of substitution to cyberspace has been increasing rapidly.

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  In central ministries and local governments in Japan, there has been a tendency to discuss introduction of Ecological Footprint (EF) as an environmental evaluation indicator to manage in national land use. However, it’s not that the calculational method of EF is clear. EF remains the introduction as “concept”. On the other hand, “Ecological Footprint Standards 2009” were released by Global Footprint Network consisting of experts in EF on September in 2009. This standards is intended to ensure consistency of EF analyses.This paper illustrates key points, by adding basic informations about EF, in the calculational method of EF based on “EF Standards 2009”.

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