Daily Life Activity Space of Hiroshima Citizens

Abstract

The present author conducted a travel-diaries survey of Hiroshima citizens during February 1992 in order to analyze their daily life activity space. Questionnaires were distributed through high school students to 400 households which are mainly composed of parents in their forties. The travel-diaries are of one weekday and one holiday and consist of time-use and spatial activity records. 200 adequate responses collected from 100 men and 100 women were used in this study.A general image of daily-life activities was formed from analyses of characteristics of trip and activities summed up by gender and by residential area. Then the time-use data were used for grouping the samples by a cluster analysis. Daily activity patterns and daily activity space for each day were examined based on trips, and changes of activities in 24 hours for each cluster.The main results obtained are as follows;1) The general image of the citizens' daily life activities differs completely from weekdays to holidays. Weekdays are working days for most of the men and their travels show a work-home as well as work-business-home travel pattern. On the other hand, weekdays for most of the women are both working and housekeeping days, and their house-keeping hours are generally longer. On holidays, men have single-purpose activities for leisure and shopping, while women still spend long hours for housekeeping besides shopping. Men generally do characteristic activities as routine during weekdays, while on holidays they do more complex activities such as outdoor leisure, shopping, etc. Women's activities on weekdays show various patterns, and they make multi-pur-pose travels for outdoor leisure, shopping, cultural activities, etc. besides working and housekeeping.2) Time-use patterns were classified into six types by a cluster analysis for weekdays and holidays respectively (Table 5).The time-use patterns for men during weekdays consist of two types, and four types for women. Type CH1 represents a common pattern for white-collar workers. It consists of less working time and more leisure time than type CH2 which represents patterns of blue-collar workers. The four types for women were classified depending on whether they are employed or not, and on how long they spend their time for housekeeping. Type CH4 for working women is of part-time workers who spend less working time and more leisure time than type CH3, who are full-time workers. Types CH5 and CH6 of housewives use more hours for housekeeping, and they were separated by whether they spend their time for outdoor leisure or not.Type CQ1 is the most popular time-use pattern during holidays for men and women, and they use considerable time for leisure and private activities. Types CQ4 and CQ5 are patterns of men, and differ from each other in the time duration spent for their leisure and working. Most women spend a longer time for housekeeping even on holidays. Their time-use patterns are classified into three types, CQ2, CQ3 and CQ6. CQ2 is a pattern with long shopping hours, CQ3 with longer hours for housekeeping, and CQ6 with working hours.3) The characteristics of outdoor activities on the two days were examined through an analysis of their trips. On weekdays, white collar men show patterns with the highest multi-purpose trip ratio, and their secondary trips were generally made up of business and private activities during or after their jobs. Working women also did multipurpose activities, and their secondary trips were for shopping before they went back home. During holidays most men and women made single-purpose trips for shopping and leisure.4) Activity space for the citizens on weekdays is commonly restricted within their working areas and/or the vicinity of their residences. Citizens living in the city core generally remain within the city core, and those working and living in the suburbs remain in the suburbs.