A Community-led Development and Implementation of “Low-speed Electric Bus” for Local Revitalization

Abstract

In many Japanese cities, a significant amount of CO2 is emitted by private vehicles since modern lifestyles are highly reliant on them. In order to develop low-carbon cities, the establishment of a sustainable mobility system is essential. Meanwhile, local cities are facing a serious decline in social vitality, due to rapid ageing and economic deterioration. This paper examines a new approach for local city revitalization by introducing a “low-speed electric community bus” as a low-carbon transportation system. The bus was developed by the university–government, –industry, –education board, and –NPO collaborations. The test project was conducted in Kiryu city of Gunma prefecture as one of the projects of the JST-RISTEX's environment-energy program. In this paper, we report the co-design and co-development of a “low-speed electric community bus” for the establishment of low-carbon transportation systems.