This study introduces an ecotravel coordinator program to reduce car use. In this system, ecotravel coordinators are put in charge of several people. They organize ecotravel meetings and are responsible for taking the initiative. During the meetings participants recognize and deepen their understanding of their travel behaviors and devise their own plans for reducing car use. The aim of this study is to examine the validity of the ecotravel coordinator program through an experimental method. One result of the experiments was that the ecocoordinators and the other participants reduced their car travel mileage 54% and 48%, respectively. Nonparticipants, however, almost never reduced their travel mileage (1.4% reduction). Thus, experiment results indicate that the system is fairly effective for reducing car use.
Mobile phone location data enable us to obtain accurate and temporally detailed long-distance travel distribution. However, the traditional long-distance travel distribution model cannot normally handle this detailed temporal information. This study proposes an approach for handling temporally detailed information of long-distance travel distribution. Considering this approach, the origin-destination matrix decomposes into two variables (indicators): destination amenity and travel cost. They can be interpreted as composite indicators of several variables that are treated in the travel-destination choice multinomial logit model. Because they are calculated only from the origin destination, we can discuss their detailed temporal variations. In this study, time changes in destination amenities and travel costs of interprefectural travel in Japan are calculated to confirm the value of this approach. These indicators have succeeded in describing the pattern of domestic long-distance travel in Japan. These quantified indicators have facilitated the understanding of the national land structure. They are useful as outcome measures for policy-making. Moreover, these indicators explain the temporal applicability of the destination choice model. Specifically, the results of destination amenities have a large seasonal variation. This indicates that the parameters of the destination amenity model (i.e., the coefficients of the destination variables) are not seasonally stable. Therefore, this must be considered when dealing with destination choice for long-distance travel.
In Japan, interests in public works have recently been enriched, and Public Involvement (PI) attracts widespread attention as a method of grasping opinions of the residents and improving residents' understandings. The object of this study is the PI project for the highway between Osawano Town, Toyama Pref. and Toyama City and the aim is to investigate how the PI project affects residents' attitudes. We made an analysis of the data of the questionnaire surveys, and examined residents' attitude to the PI project, its change, and the difference between Osawano and Toyama.
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