The social isolation of families raising children has become an issue in Japan in recent years, due to the trend toward nuclear families, the declining birthrate, the weakening of ties with the local community, the decrease in time available for work due to dual income, and the fact that many parents leave their home communities when they get married. On the other hand, Kumamoto City has been promoting a program called “Classes for Family Education”. The purpose of this study is to clarify the actual situation of classes for family education in Kumamoto City, and to identify the factors that contribute to the formation of a network of parents. Therefore, interviews and questionnaire surveys were conducted with the administrators and participants of the Classes for Family Education, and an analysis was carried out. The results of the study revealed that through social education, mutual recognition of activities initiated by diverse participants, the sharing of minor operational challenges among participants, and the experience of collaborative and co-creative activities are critical factors in fostering network formation within the local community.

In this study, the performance of traffic flow models is verified by long-term monitoring of traffic states. In traffic control, it is important to monitor and provide information on traffic flows. As sensors for monitoring traffic states are sparse, supplementary estimation of unobserved areas by traffic flow models is necessary. As traffic flows change from moment to moment, it is difficult to calibrate the model parameters in advance. In this study, the technical issues of traffic flow models for traffic monitoring are identified and solutions are proposed, and the performance of traffic flow models is verified through case studies. The validation results show that the model has good accuracy in both normal and accident states. The results also suggest the possibility of monitoring traffic states under states where probe data is not available, by using downstream vehicle detectors as an alternative.

This study extends the framework of behavioral models that describe situations in which decision-makers become rationally inattentive, and develops a nested Logit-type travel behavior model and a traffic equilibrium allocation model that describe (1) situations in which tourist drivers misperceive traffic conditions, (2) situations in which drivers simultaneously acquire traffic information and select routes, and (3) situations in which traffic conditions change due to fluctuations in OD demand. Numerical analysis of the effects of reducing the difficulty of obtaining information and providing stopover coupons on route selection behavior using a simple network simulating a return trip from a sightseeing spot suggests that coupon provision alone may not be effective in improving congestions, and that simultaneously reducing information difficulty and increasing coupons may have the opposite effect.

The impact of the COVID-19 infection on traffic safety has been reported, as well as a reduction in traffic demand. However, most studies have focused on the short-term period during or immediately before and after lockdown, and studies examining the relatively long-term effects of the spread of novel coronavirus infection on traffic accidents are still limited. There are also few examples of studies that have analyzed the combination of COVID-19 infection and traffic accident factors. The purpose of this study was to understand how accident factors affected the risk of single-vehicle facility contact accidents through changes in traffic conditions due to the spread of COVID-19 infection on the Tokyo Metropolitan Expressway. The results showed that the risk of facility-contact accidents only increased with the COVID-19 infection, and the locations where accidents frequently occurred also changed. Furthermore, in addition to the existing influencing factors, it was suggested that facility-contact accidents caused by “rainfall” and “S-curves” were more likely to occur.

The purpose of this study was to extract Access and Functional Needs (AFN) for people with intellectual disabilities to “enjoy” expositions by using AFN (Access and Functional Needs), which is a new concept of disability in American disaster research. As a result, 10AFNs were extracted: “Lack of space (space and time)”, “Complex space and information (difficulty in understanding)”, and “Too much stimulation (environmental changes, crowding, etc.)”, Many of these AFNs were common to AFNs of people with other disabilities, and it was found that “lack of space and time” was not recognized as an AFN of people with intellectual disabilities.

In this study, we have curated 30 MaaS cases in local cities from 2018 to 2023, summarized their implementation statuses, and integrated the effects of their introduction. As a result, it is currently evident that ninety percent of MaaS cases in local cities are paid pilot experiments, and all cases involve participation from the industry. On the other hand, the adoption rate of subscription functions within MaaS cases is relatively low, and integration of multiple modes of transportation has not been achieved. Lastly, it has been observed that with the introduction of MaaS, there has been an approximately 32% increase in public transport usage among experimental participants, a 45% increase in outings, and approximately 79% of the experimental participants have expressed high satisfaction with MaaS.

In principle, evacuation during disasters is supposed to be done on foot, but since more than half of the evacuees in the Great East Japan Earthquake used automobiles, the use of automobiles for evacuation is being considered. On the other hand, since evacuation by car may cause traffic congestion, it is necessary to temporarily expand the traffic capacity. Contraflow is one of the measures to expand traffic capacity. Contraflow has been applied to hurricanes in other countries, and its effectiveness has been confirmed, but there are no examples of its application to disasters in Japan. In this study, I developed a simulation model for evacuation of automobiles in Watari Town, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. I applied the contraflow to a congested area and found that the contraflow can evacuate more vehicles from the flooded area by the effect of the contraflow. In addition, by incorporating hazardous behaviors into the evacuation simulation, I have developed a simulation model that is closer to the reality.

In recent years, the number of emergency medical transport and the medical transport time have increased tendency. Also, there are worries that the level of medical services is decrease due to combination and reorganization of hospital and doctor shortage. Medical transport tends to take a long time in mountainous areas and small local government. Therefore, it is important to clarify the current situation and issues of medical transport in each region and to speculate how medical transport will change with social conditions. This study conducts analysis using medical transport data and this study shows simulation system for estimating medical transport time distribution by region. Finally, using this simulation, this study analyzes the impact of future changes in the social environment on emergency medical transport.

With the increase in driver assistance system in vehicles such as automatic breaking, this study aims to examine the influence of the user's experience with driver assistance systems on their intention to use and purchase advanced automatic driving systems. For this purpose, the chi-squared test (χ²) and residual analysis were applied to data collected from a web-based questionnaire survey. The results showed that trust in driving support systems was higher for those who had either installed or had experience is using the systems. In addition, the results found that the intention to use/purchase an advanced automatic driving system tended to be higher for individuals with a higher level of trust in a driver assistance system, regardless of whether they have used the system before.

In recent years, redevelopment projects and various policies have been implemented to promote compact cities where residents can live without relying on automobiles, using public transportation and walking instead. In particular, street improvements aimed at enhancing pedestrian comfort have been actively pursued. However, the quantitative evaluation of streetscape and pedestrian comfort remains a challenge. This study develops a model to describe the impact of streetscapes on pedestrian route choice behavior and evaluates street space improvements in the Toyosu district of Tokyo. Specifically, streetscape variables obtained through image analysis are incorporated into a Recursive Logit-based route choice model, and parameters are estimated from observed data. Furthermore, multiple streetscape patterns are generated using generative AI, and route choice simulations are conducted. This approach enables a quantitative evaluation that explicitly considers the relationship between streetscape and pedestrian route choice behavior, contributing to the effective planning of pedestrian-friendly urban spaces.

One of the tools used in mobility management is Transport Sugoroku. In this board game, players select either a car card, which slows down due to “traffic congestion” as the number of players increases, or a train card, which always advances a certain number of squares, and aim for the goal. In this study, we investigated and analysed the effects of Transport Sugoroku on attitude change and the characteristics of players’ strategies by analysing the process and results of the game using the Shapley value concept of game theory. The results showed that the attitude change effect of Transport Sugoroku exists to a certain degree, and that players who adopt selfish strategies in the game have a relatively large attitude change effect. When the rules were changed to make trains less convenient, selfish strategies were more likely to be adopted, and players who had previously mainly chosen trains tended to choose cars more often.

Amid the problem of declining public transportation in rural areas, the “Compact + Network” initiative is being promoted. Toyama City in Toyama Prefecture, which introduced the LRT, has seen an increase in the number of public transportation users and the rate of outings by residents along its rail line. On the other hand, a quantitative evaluation from a more microscopic viewpoint is required for the impact of the LRT on the liveliness along its rail line. In this study, inverse reinforcement learning, a type of machine learning, was used to generate action trajectories from smartphone location data, and estimated the behavior of people staying along LRT lines. The model was able to evaluate the characteristics of location data with high accuracy, and the model showed that there are more staying behaviors along LRT lines than along non-lines, and that the staying behaviors decay over time. The analysis suggests the importance of environmental improvement along LRT lines in urban development utilizing LRT.

In Japan, expressways face frequent congestion and increasing demand for large-scale renovation due aging infrastructure. As such, appropriate traffic management measures are increasingly important. In this study, we conducted a stated preference survey on a game-type service to alleviate traffic congestion, which was constructed as a measure for promoting behavioral change of expressway users based on gamification. In the survey, we asked about their behaviors under virtual traffic and game situations, and we then analyzed the potential for behavioral change by focusing on user characteristics and rewards. As a result, we identified the characteristics of expressway users who are likely to be promoted to change their behavior by introducing the game-type service, such as daily game players and short-distance drivers. Moreover, the results suggested that behavioral change may be promoted by the pleasure of the game-type service to alleviate traffic congestion even in situations where rewards had no monetary value.

The challenges for public transport policy in Japan include the decline in population (depopulation and ageing) in rural and suburban areas, the high dependence on private cars and the lack of public transport providers, which may prevent regional public transport systems from meeting the mobility needs of local communities. In addition to the improvement and enhancement of existing transport services and the full use of local transport resources, it is expected that sustainable transport services will be provided and secured through the development and introduction of new technologies and services that support public transport. In addition, the revised law that came into force in November 2020 made it mandatory for regions to make efforts to prepare a regional public transport plan as a master plan in local governments designed by the regions themselves. Meanwhile, in Europe, the European Commission’s transport policy principle “Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMP)” has been established, and guidelines were drawn up in 2013. This paper discusses SUMPs, their formulation features, challenges in their implementation and innovation, and the characteristics of initiatives and transport policies in cities that have specifically formulated SUMPs, and attempts to provide suggestions for regional public transport plans in Japan.

“Walkable city”, which makes people feel comfortable and want to walk, is attracting urban planners as a means of regional revitalization for local communities, with low birthrate, aging population, and population outflow. In order to implement “Walkable City” it is essential to understand pedestrian behavior and evaluate measures based on pedestrian trajectory data. However, pedestrian trajectory surveys on the street cost so much, as a result their usage has been limited. Therefore, this study aims to construct a walking route choice model using commercially available GPS data, and to implement a simulation to evaluate the improvement of the pedestrian environment. As a result of empirical analysis using actual data, we found enough correlation between the simulation result and the actual pedestrian flow.

An auxiliary lane is usually used as an effective measure against traffic congestion to correct lane utilization and increase traffic capacity at the sags of multi-lane expressways. There are three forms of auxiliary lanes that have been installed in Japan, i.e. left-addition left-closure, right-addition right-closure, and right-addition left-closure. In our previous research, we found that the right-addition left-closure configuration is preferable for congestion countermeasures at high flow level, while the right-addition right-closure one is preferable for improving the level of service (LOS) at moderate flow level. In this study, a microscopic traffic flow simulation model was used to investigate the effective installation method of an auxiliary lane as a countermeasure against congestion at a bottleneck of sag. The results showed that it was advantageous to install an auxiliary lane from 400 m upstream of the bottleneck longitudinal curve section and from 800 m to 1.0 km from the downstream end of the longitudinal curve section, with an additional lane length of about 1.5 km to 2.0 km.

The introduction of community buses and Demand Responsive Transport (DRT) in Japan has been progressing since the 1990s and 2000s as a means of mobility to support residents’ daily lives. However, due to the small scale of the targeted demand, it is challenging to secure revenue based on user fares; hence, this requires a continuous financial burden on local governments, and there have been cases where local governments have been forced to review their routes and means of provision. In this paper, to quantitatively understand the modal characteristics of community buses and demand transportation systems introduced in Japan, we surveyed municipalities that have introduced community buses or Demand Responsive Transport and analysed the costs involved in introducing and operating community buses and Demand Responsive Transport. In addition, the survey was conducted to understand the cost of introducing and operating community buses and Demand Responsive Transport, the actual transport scale, and the general situation of the evaluation in actual municipalities. Furthermore, based on the above results, we will consider the introduction of evaluation indicators that express the characteristics of DRT in response to reservations.

A dramatic global increase in natural disasters has attracted attention to humanitarian logistics for the rapid and proper distribution of relief goods. This paper presents research directions for relief inventory models, which determine how much to store and when to order, based on the theoretical foundations of commercial logistics. We first outline the mathematical properties of typical approaches to commercial inventory models-stochastic service models and guaranteed service models-. It then reviews state-of-the-art research on relief inventory models and discusses the applicability of commercial insights.

As the shortage of parking space for large cargo vehicles at expressway SA/PAs is becoming more serious, a Column parking system (Col-P) that can expand parking capacity without physical expansion by controlling departure time has been tested as a congestion countermeasure in Europe. In Japan, Col-P has started to be considered for introduction, but its performance characteristics and effectiveness have not been sufficiently verified. In this study, a case study was conducted at Ebina SA, and the effects of Col-P were analyzed in terms of the ratio of Col-P installation and allowable time difference. The results showed how parking efficiency can be improved by each parameter of the Col-P entry condition.

In analyzing business continuity and economic damage, initial production capacity rate is an important indicator that provides a starting point for recovery. Furthermore, initial production capacity rate is also an indicator of seismic safety in the sense that it is related to the percentage of facilities and equipment that escaped damage. In this paper, the method for evaluating production capacity immediately after an earthquake that reflects the actual damage caused by recent earthquakes and the characteristics of each industry sector was examined. Specifically, functional fragility curves of production capacity for each of 11 industries were developed using a multinomial response model based on damage survey data from the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake and the 2022 Fukushima offshore earthquake. As a result of subdividing the industry categories, industries with high and low seismic safety were identified. Compared with the functional fragility curves in the 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku Earthquake, both manufacturing and non-manufacturing industries showed significant improvement in seismic safety. The functional fragility curves by industry estimated in this study reflect the seismic safety of each industry, and are expected to be an effective tool to support more sophisticated and refined estimates of economic damage caused by earthquakes.

Bike-sharing systems have been introduced in various cities worldwide, and understanding their usage patterns is crucial for improving the service. This study analyzes bike-sharing usage data from Kumamoto City, Japan, to 1) identify the characteristics of rides where the departure and arrival ports are the same, and 2) reveal the diversity of rides using an index based on the Gini coefficient. We propose four diversity indices: departure time diversity, port pair diversity, departure port diversity, and arrival port diversity. These indices, along with the Lorenz curve, are used to visualize and quantify usage diversity. The results indicate a decreasing trend in departure and arrival port diversity as the distance from downtown Kumamoto increases.

Tourists decide the time to perform activity depending on a purpose, but the distribution changes by the congestion and natural conditions in that time. We grasp the number of the visitors in every mesh in the specific sightseeing spot from The Docomo’s Mobile Spatial Statistics Data, and suggest a method to reversely estimate the number of visitors for each activity according to the season to a sightseeing spot, the spatial choice rate of the destination for every different activity, distribution of the preferred time for every different activity. We grasp outbreak of the congestion indirectly by estimating “the capacity” of the mesh for each activity reversely. Analysis of the visitors population of 30 meshes in Hakodate-shi, well confirmed the existence of the activity in the morning and evening with seasonal fluctuation of time, discovered a strength and the weakness of mesh, and identified the congestion phenomenon.

This study compares the frequency of local railway services in Japan, the United Kingdom, and France before and after the national railway reforms in each country (1980 and 2000) and at the present time (2019). The results showed that the frequency of train services in Japan increased from 1980 to 2000, but decreased after 2000, especially at stations with small population density in the station area, where the rate of decrease was larger than that at larger stations. On the other hand, in the U.K. and France, the frequency of train services has been continuously increasing, even at stations with small population density in the station area.

In view of the future expansion of road maintenance, it is necessary to develop an optimization method for construction management to alleviate traffic congestion. In this study, a congestion forecasting method for intensive construction on the Chuo Expressway of Japan was developed and the optimization of construction management was investigated. The congestion forecasting method is based on a deterministic queueing model and uses the traffic capacity and the five-minute traffic flow predicted by the traffic capacity forecasting model and the traffic flow forecasting model as inputs to calculate the queues every five minutes and predict whether congestion will occur or not. The results showed that, except for traffic jams caused by accidents, all the traffic jams that occurred during the intensive construction period could be predicted. In addition, the genetic algorithm optimized the construction schedule, reducing the average delay time from 8.9 minutes to 2.2 minutes.

In sports tourism, it is important to quantitatively understand the relationship between watching sports and staying in town. In this study, we analyzed the characteristics of the stay in Kashiwa City, Chiba Prefecture, before and after watching a J-League game using two types of cell phone location data. The analysis of cell phone location data, which provides aggregate data on the number of visitors, shows that the number of visitors has a positive effect on the number of people who stay at the station nearest to the stadium. The analysis also showed that the number of people stay at the nearest station decreased when the distance between the stadium and the station was greater. The analysis of cell phone location data, which can be used to track individual behavior, showed that the day of the week, weather, temperature, and the start time of the game had an effect on the time spent before and after watching a J-League game. When the start time of the game was earlier, people spent more time at the around nearest station after the game.

The purpose of this study is to clarify the relationship for the formation and conservation of the Riverscape based on the relationship between the changes in the use of these rivers the formation process of the current Riverscape, and the local attachment and desire to sustain it around the Saigo Port in Okinoshima Town. Based on literature review, interview survey, field survey, and questionnaire survey. As a result, understanding the structure as a living landscape and sharing values among local residents is important for the future sustainability of the Riverscape.

In recent years, the societal implementation of MaaS (Mobility as a Service), which enables seamless travel without relying on private cars, has been promoted. Transportation hubs, crucial for connecting different modes of transport, are emphasized in this context. Meanwhile, Japan’s expressway and expressway bus networks have significantly developed over the past half-century. Access-controlled expressways require hubs connecting expressway buses with other transport modes. However, such hubs leveraging expressway advantages are currently lacking. This study proposes using parking areas (PAs) on expressways as hubs and develops a method to estimate demand at these hubs using mobile base station data. Analysis and estimation conducted with Kusatsu PA on the Meishin Expressway as a case study indicated that new expressway buses could achieve a share of 10-25%.

In rapidly declining urban centers, the presence of long-term vacant storefronts acts as a hindrance to revitalization. The prolonged vacancy of these storefronts is believed to be influenced by factors specific to the buildings and owners, as well as the overall location and environmental conditions. In this study, we focus on vacant storefronts, examining their spatial location and the surrounding environment to elucidate the impact of these spatial relationships on the occurrence and persistence of vacant storefronts. Specifically, we analyze the spatial factors of vacant storefronts using data collected at two time points in the commercial area around Tottori Station. Utilizing independently conducted surveys, we investigate the spatial distribution of vacant storefronts, including the concentration of vacancies and the presence of neighboring vacant storefronts. We statistically reveal the spatial dependencies between the overall distribution of vacant storefronts and the occurrence, persistence, and even disappearance of individual vacant storefronts. Through this analysis, we aim to identify specific stores and areas that should be prioritized for intervention to effectively suppress the long-term continuation or emergence of vacant properties, and derive policy implications accordingly.

Disasters such as floods and earthquakes not only cause direct and serious damage to people through injuries and destruction of their homes but also force many people to change their daily activities due to the suspension of transportation and daily living services. Although these types of damage are relatively minor for each individual, the social impact cannot be ignored due to the large number of people affected. In this study, we propose an approach to measure the impact of disasters on daily activities. First, the proposed approach was applied to 34 disaster events in 11 cities, and the changes detected in each event were clarified. As a result, the following three points were found. 1) The preparedness behaviors, called “pre-increase,” are detected immediately before several disaster events. 2) The proposed approach can quantify and compare the degree of damage in daily activities among multiple events. 3) It is possible to evaluate the effects of planned suspensions of railway operations. However, further analysis with a larger sample size is needed to identify the detailed effects.

Sightseeing trains, which have been introduced in many parts of Japan in recent years, differ from trains used on a daily basis in that they have value in terms of improving and communicating the attractiveness of the areas along the train route and making effective use of local resources. In this study, we grasped the actual operation status of sightseeing trains throughout Japan and organized the relationship between train characteristics and the characteristics of train routes and regions by conducting a cluster analysis based on train attractiveness factors to create a typology. The results of the cluster analysis showed that sightseeing trains in Japan were classified into four types: “train-window type,” “design type,” “service type,” and “comprehensive type.” The results of the analysis for each type showed that the travel time for the “comprehensive type” was significantly longer than that of other clusters, and provided policy suggestions on what type of sightseeing trains can be operated in what areas and what type of attractions can be utilized for sightseeing trains as a means of utilizing regional resources.

Local cities in Japan are losing their vitality and liveliness due to a decrease in the residential population, traffic congestion, and unregulated proliferation of urban functions. In the city center area of Naha City, the target area of this study, transit malls and other revitalization measures have been implemented, but a method for quantitatively evaluating the effects of these measures by monitoring human flow has not been established. This study utilizes Wi-Fi access point data to examine the characteristics of visits to Kokusai Street before and after Corona by visitors to the city center. As a result, we found a decrease in the time spent in the area and a change in the bustling area of the town, suggesting that the behavioral characteristics can be grasped and applied to a monitoring method for the flow of people in the central city area.

In promoting watershed flood control, it is important for residents living in downstream areas to have a sense of cooperation with the efforts of residents living in upstream areas. In this study, as an example of watershed flood control, a rice paddy dam was taken up, and the residents living in the downstream area were set to have a sense of cooperation in purchasing rice from the rice paddy dam, which was obtained through the rice paddy dam initiative implemented in the upstream area, and the influence of the gratitude message and its sender on their intention to purchase rice from the rice paddy dam was verified through a laboratory experiment. The results of the experiment showed that messages with gratitude from government officials involved in disaster prevention had a higher purchase intention of rice paddy dam rice than messages with gratitude from rice paddy dam farmers.

In Japan, humps have been developed on the premise that they will be applied to residential roads with a speed limit of 30 km/h. However, there are roads with a 40 km/h restriction that require appropriate speed reduction, and the application is required not only for passenger cars but also for roads with bus traffic, so new considerations are needed. In this study, we aimed to examine the shape of a hump that can be installed on roads with a speed limit of 40 km/h, where buses also travel, and analyzed the length of the hump, vehicle vibration, and passengers’ discomfort and sense of danger. Passenger cars, trucks, and buses were prepared at a test site and passed through humps with the same slope shape and different flat sections to measure speed, passenger discomfort/danger, vertical acceleration of the vehicle, surrounding vibrations and noise. As a result of the analysis, a non-linear relationship was found between the length of the hump and the magnitude of vibration inside the car, and the results of a questionnaire survey showed that the greater the vibration inside the car, the greater the discomfort and sense of danger. From the above results, it was found that there is a length of the hump that suppresses the vibration of the bus and reduces the discomfort and sense of danger for passengers.

We analyzed time series effects of hard measures (e.g., levee construction) and soft measures (e.g., inducement of relocation by subsidies to companies) to reduce the risk of flooding on the distribution of firms in Odawara City and surrounding cities and towns. The analysis was conducted by constructing a location equilibrium model that can estimate the future time-series distribution of firms in the area and the impact of various flood risk reduction measures on the distribution of firms. The model considers various factors including the flood risk of areas where firms (by industry and facility) are newly located or relocate. Parameters of the model were estimated using stated preference data. The results of the analysis revealed that the effect of the hard measures alone, which set the maximum flood depth to zero in the urban functions induction areas and industrial parks, on firm concentration and risk reduction is extremely small, while the implementation of soft measures, which provide subsidies to firms that relocate or newly locate in addition to hard measures, can be highly effective.

In general, “academic elites” need to be aware of their responsibilities and duties according to their status and have an “aristocratic sense of responsibility” to serve society. However, as university education has become popularized in recent years, there is a suspicion that their sense of aristocratic responsibility has diminished. If their sense of aristocratic responsibility, which could be a member of the leadership of society, declines, Japan as a whole may suffer a great loss, for example, because necessary policies may not be implemented. In this study, we measured the sense of aristocratic responsibility of today’s academic elites through a Web-based survey. The results suggest that the older educated elites have a stronger sense of aristocratic responsibility than the non-educated elites, while there is no significant difference among the younger educated elites, i.e., the younger educated elites have less sense of aristocratic responsibility. This suggests that younger educated elites have less sense of aristocratic responsibility.

In Japan, GDP and other indicators have been deteriorating due to low inflation for a long time. However, the deterioration of social and political indicators that accompanies such deterioration is rarely mentioned. In addition, it is conceivable that this underestimation could be the reason for the small scale of the deflationary measures. In this study, we define the phenomenon of deflation as a chain of economic, social, and political deterioration caused by persistent low inflation. The objective is to reveal the multifaceted nature of the phenomenon of deflation and the horror of its cascading nature. Then we theoretically organized the phenomenon of deflation. As a result, we recognize the following theoretical overview of the phenomenon of deflation. “The deflationary trend accompanying fiscal austerity leads to an increase in poverty inequality. The increase in poverty inequality leads to a decline in the public nature of the nation, and the decline in the public nature of the nation leads to political corruption. Deflationary trend also increases social problems such as the concentration of people in one area. This leads to a chain reaction of declines in the amount of happiness among the people.” While forming hypotheses about the overall picture of the deflation phenomenon, we conducted basic verifications, and some of these were statistically supported.

In recent years, an increasing number of municipalities have shifted from community bus services to individual transportation services using taxis and private cars. However, it is not easy to ensure both profitability and convenience of the service at the same time, and there are situations in which the service cannot be maintained in its current form. In order to solve these problems, this study focused on a newly proposed “Integrated Sustainable Public Transport System”, a new transport service that integrates volunteer transport drivers and taxis, and conducted a web-based questionnaire survey to understand factors influencing the intention to use the service. As a result, we found that fare discount rate, relationship with the driver, gender of the driver, deadline for advance reservations, and discrepancy from the desired arrival time had a significant impact on the intention to use the service.

High-speed rail development tends to be high cost and often decided by governments. Although the decisions have been made by comprehensively considering the country’s population, economy, land, politics, etc., each country has different priorities and ways of thinking about high-speed rail development. Those are different even in the same country at various ages. This research evaluates the chronological development level of high-speed rail in the world. The target countries are the countries that have 100km or more length of high-speed rail as of 2021. The usage of high-speed rail and conventional rail are also analyzed. The result shows that the development process of high-speed rail in Spain is unique. Although the development level of high-speed rail is the best among the target countries, the transport density of both passenger and freight rail is comparatively low. The considerations of the development backgrounds of high-speed rail in Spain are the following stories. First, high-speed rail development began as an opportunity for international events between core cities. After that, high public opinion became the driving force, and some lines with not so many populations were developed regardless of political ideology. One of the factors that realize the development is funds from the EU. The government of Spain has received at least 20% of the total project cost. The stories of Spain’s development suggest that high-speed rail is recognized as Social Common Capital and its development has been implemented based on political philosophy.

Securing necessary facilities through cooperation among core areas is important to address concerns about declining core area functionality caused by population decrease and an aging society. However, the planning axis of the future urban structure map, which can be expected to show cooperation among core areas, lacks sufficient consideration of cooperation between core areas by complementing facilities. This study quantitatively elucidates the possibility of complementation of facilities among locations connected by public transportation, with understanding of the current situation with the establishment of the planning axes. The analysis results demonstrated that, for the targeted types of facilities, planning axes aimed at cooperation are generally established between core areas where the importance of facility complementation is high. However, cooperation axes also exist between core areas where the importance of facility complementation is low. Additionally, some planning axes did not clearly indicate an intention of cooperation among municipalities. Findings indicate the importance of aligning the location of facilities with the planning axes, considering discrepancies between planning and actual conditions and coordinating between municipalities.

In recent years, social aversion toward masculine things is considered to be expanding in Japan. On the other hand, there is not enough discussion on the virtues or positive value which people’s masculinity includes. In this study, we newly defined “masculine values” as people’s attitudes toward masculinity and conducted a questionnaire survey of men to examine the possibility that people’s masculine values may contribute to their positive personal qualities. The results suggested that masculine values have a positive impact on three virtues: tenacity, disaster mental resilience, and protection instinct towards one’s community. It was also shown that it is appropriate to distinguish between “masculinity” and “preference for masculinity,” which constitute masculine values, and that the former is particularly effective in demonstrating the above qualities.

This study conducted an evacuation decision simulation based on the free energy principle, which has recently attracted attention in the field of neuroscience. We examined the relationship between the accuracy of disaster information, information acquisition, and evacuation choice, as well as the effects of individual psychological and environmental factors on these relationships. The results suggest that there is a structural tipping point in the subjective probability of disaster that significantly changes the behavioral patterns of information acquisition and evacuation, and that information should not be provided when the subjective probability of disaster is greater than the tipping point. Furthermore, it was found that reducing the amount of time and effort required to evacuate improves not only the rate at which people choose to evacuate, but also the rate at which they obtain information about disasters.

Each prefecture has formulated a new regional road transportation plan, clarifying the hierarchy of routes and their service travel speeds within the regional road network. However, when considering travel between municipal offices and key facilities (hereafter referred to as ‘key hubs’), it is ideal to examine the road network based on the target travel times set by higher-level plans. Nevertheless, many higher-level plans in local government do not specify target travel times for travel between key hubs. Therefore, an empirical analysis of distances and travel times between key hubs, as well as the hierarchy of roads used for travel in Japan, is conducted in this study. Based on the results of this analysis, a method for determining target travel times is proposed. As a result of the analysis, it was confirmed that the types and proportions of roads used vary depending on the travel between targeted hubs. Furthermore, a method was implemented to evaluate target travel times based on the concept of a hierarchical road network, using empirical usage data obtained from actual road conditions.

This study aims to elucidate the structure of mobility environment evaluation in urban tourism by surveying users of the “Me~guru” sightseeing route bus in Nagoya City. We developed models for the likelihood of visiting each tourist site and for evaluating the mobility environment by actual visitors and compared their parameters. The results reveal that the decision to visit is influenced by factors such as interest in the destination and the ease of understanding the route—elements that are easy to research and anticipate in advance. In contrast, the mobility environment evaluations by actual visitors were significantly influenced by factors like walking distance and congestion during transit, which are difficult to fully assess beforehand. These findings highlight the differences in the evaluation structures between the likelihood of visiting and the assessments made by actual visitors.

Toyama City is considered to be an advanced city in the compact city policy. In the past, Toyama City had the lowest population density in Japan in the prefectural capital DID due to a long-term population decline, and there was a canal on the north side of Toyama Station with water quality problems. In this paper, we focus on the background factors that made this policy and the idea of LRT possible. Specifically, we will clarify the efforts of Toyama City and Toyama Prefecture in the suppression of the hollowing out of the area around Toyama Station by the “Toyama City Mirai Plan” from 1986, the major changes in the station area space due to the reform of the Japanese National Railways, the emergence and rejection of the underground station plaza plan at Toyama Station, the failure and revival of the continuous three-dimensional railway project, and the exclusion of the Toyama Port Line from the continuous three-dimensional construction project, and present knowledge that will contribute to future urban and transportation policies.

In recent years, it is necessary to reorganize the automobile-centered road space into a people-centered public space in the city center to help revitalize the community. Especially in regional cities with a strong automobile-dependent society, one of the major issues is the reorganization of narrow roads in the city center. In this study, we conducted a social experiment to reorganize a narrow road into a people-centered public space on Omachi Street in Aizuwakamatsu City, and analyzed the effects of road surface decoration, installation of fixtures and plants on pedestrian safety and local revitalization. The results of the study confirmed that it is possible to create about seven times more bustle than usual, and that the installation of road surface decoration, fixtures, and plantings, slows down the speed of automobiles. It was found that even a temporary installation and/or temporary contents can create an environment that is comfortable and safe for pedestrians.

In recent years, seismic activity has been more frequent and severe. A daily life can suddenly alter into a disaster, underscoring the need to build a phase-free environment between everyday life and disaster situations. This research specifically examines the role of green open spaces, defined as open spaces in the city covered by greenery including parks and roadside trees, which serve various functions in both disaster relief and daily life. Utilizing newly added consumption data from the sixth person trip survey of the Tokyo metropolitan area conducted in 2018, the relationships between green coverage and consumption behavior, along with excursion behavior, were obtained. Furthermore, the amount of money spent by consumers arriving in the 1.5-kilometer buffer of Yamanote stations was formulated using the Tobit model. Through the estimated parameters of the model, including personal aspects, trip attributes, and regional characteristics, the effects of green coverage on daily consumption behaviors were analyzed. Moreover, by magnifying the research area into specific stations and comparing them, the characteristics of each area, including the effects of green coverage, were clarified. Overall, the fact that green open spaces influence everyday behavior has become evident, which quantitatively proves their importance in the city.

In recent years, traffic accidents have occurred on school routes one after another, and a joint inspection of school routes was conducted in response to a traffic accident that occurred in Yachimata City, Chiba Prefecture, in June 2021. While there is a need to improve traffic safety on school routes, many local governments and elementary schools have not established quantitative standards or indicators for setting school routes, which may prevent them from selecting appropriate routes and implementing traffic safety measures. In this study, we clarified the relationship between road characteristics and traffic accident risk using the network kernel density estimation method, and examined whether appropriate routes to school are set up in an area within a 500-m radius of an elementary school. As a result, it was shown that there were elementary schools where safe roads were not selected as school routes and the risk of traffic accidents was higher on school routes than on non-school routes.

Entry to stores located on corner lots at intersections affects the speed and safety of other vehicles on the road. This study aims to understand the actual conditions of route choice for vehicles visiting stores that are positioned at the far-right corner. There are two possible routes for entry: turning right at the intersection and then turning left, or going straight through the intersection and then turning right. However, the factors influencing these route choices have not been explored. Therefore, we conducted field observations at 14 stores around Kanazawa. We analyzed the relationship between route choice and candidate factors such as the number of lanes, traffic volume, road capacity, demand ratio, and the location of the parking lot entrances and exits. The results indicated that the former route was generally more likely to be chosen, and rational reasons existed when the latter was chosen. Additionally, a comprehensive comparison and examination of the various factors mentioned above is desirable.

In future public transportation, where supply capacity is expected to decline, it is necessary to maintain or improve transportation performance, but it is not clear whether current routes can handle the actual people flow. Understanding the extent of people flow on routes that are not able to accommodate it will be an important indicator for route reorganization. Therefore, in this study, we identified areas in the south-central urban area of the main island of Okinawa where there are no route connections and where travel is inconvenient interregional. We also analyzed the characteristics of human flow among these areas. As a result, it was found that the current public transportation can handle only about 30% of the human flow. In addition, about 60% of the travel between inconvenient interregional that can’t handle high people flow is across municipalities, indicating the need for coordination among municipalities.

There are many countries in the world where population growth and economic development are expected, and there is a need to plan transportation networks that can meet future domestic intercity passenger transportation demand. It is necessary to appropriately combine multiple transportation modes which have different costs, speeds, compatible distance zones, and environmental impact, while considering economic sustainability, which can be operated without continuous state funding, and environmental sustainability, which reduces energy use and environmental impacts. This research suggests a method to obtain the roles and appropriate share of transportation modes under various carbon dioxide emission constraints by calculating an endogenous demand and fare network optimization model with changing constraints. The calculations were made with a hypothetical network simulating Japan, and it was confirmed that as the emission constraints become more stringent, the mode with the highest carbon dioxide emissions per capita decreases its share in the network in turn.