A Study of the Correspondence of Urban Expansion in Relation to Transport Coordination in Osaka City during the Interwar Period (1918-1939)

Abstract

This paper clarifies that transport coordination in Osaka City was not only controlled by the economy, but also by urban expansion similar to urban planning by examining the territoriality of urban transportation. The territoriality generally consisted of intraurban and suburban transportations. The contents of this paper can be summarized as follows:1) The municipal monopoly of urban transport facilities in Osaka City is generally considered to have begun in 1903. The system functioned well as long as the municipal area did not grow. After the second expansion of the municipal area in 1925, many inconsistencies developed.2) The municipal tramway under the municipal monopoly was profitable by the first half of the 1920s and it played a leading role. Later, however, due to the increasing number of buses and taxis, it declined in profitability.3) Rapid transit was planned as a part of overall urban planning in the 1920s. One purpose was to integrate intraurban and suburban transportations as a means of controlling urban expansion.Another purpose of urban planning was the construction of transport facilities, not the functional coordination of the various means of transportation. Moreover, plans for rapid transit paid little attention to its relationship to other means of transportations.4) The most disruptive influence on the municipal monopoly was the opening of the Osaka Bus Company. At first, Osaka Bus was only a supplement to the municipal tramway. However, it drained off numerous passengers because it possessed bus lines in the central part of the municipal area. One purpose of the later opening of a competing municipal bus line was to integrate intraurban and suburban transportations as a temporary substitution for rapid transit that tended to be constructed late. However, that bus line was not authorized to operate within the central municipal area.5) Essentially, the rise of transport coordination in Osaka City was a de facto amendment of the municipal monopoly on the range and scope of urban transportation to its integration.6) The new municipal monopoly of urban transport facilities which adapted territoriality of urban transportation was completed by the municipal tramway, bus, and rapid transit, and merger with Osaka Bus in 1938. Wartime regulation was indispensable for its realization, but the result was a reinstatement of the municipal monopoly of urban transport facilities. It is clear that the essential purpose of transport coordination in Osaka City was to strengthen the municipal monopoly of urban transport facilities, which had been undermined between 1918 and 1939. Although wartime regulation was indispensable for its realization, such a purpose was common to urban planning at the same time. From these conclusions, it is clear that transport coordination in Osaka City was not only controlled by the economy, but also by urban expansion.