Mobility perspective for a local city in Japan

Abstract

Japan is now heading toward a population decrease and a highly aging society. The nationwide automobile dependency established over the past 50years has affected the country's road building policy and the formation of urban structure based on automobile usage. Now, Japan is facing serious mobility problems, especially among the elderly. This tendency is more prominent in local cities throughout the country. The solutions to improve mobility are found in three areas: the promotion of public transportation, bicycles, and compact cities.Utsunomiya City, a regional capital heavily dependent on automobile transportation, suffers from severe traffic congestion, a high traffic accident rate, high carbon dioxide emissions, and urban sprawl. In order to achieve the long-term objectives of becoming a sustainable city, it launched an ambitious mobility strategy. Utsunomiya City has been one of the front-runners in introducing a new light rail transit (LRT) system. The prospect of building the first modern LRT system in Japan is very promising at present. This paper attempts to look back at the history of LRT planning efforts and analyze the circumstances and background of various stakeholders and the perceptions of citizens. It also attempts to sort out the various issues and challenges that the city needs to solve in order to achieve the objective of becoming the first city to build a new LRT in Japan.Another solution to excessive automobile dependency is bicycles, which are a convenient and inexpensive transportation mode all over the world. In Japan, however, automobile-oriented transportation and urban policies have prevailed, leaving the bicycle long neglected. Still, recent years have seen the bicycle gain recognition as a healthy, environmentally friendly alternative to the automobile, especially after the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011. Utsunomiya City has been actively pursuing a mobility policy of bicycle utilization since 2003 and is regarded as one of the leaders in its promotion. The potential success in Utsunomiya to overcome automobile dependency will make it a model for many local cities in Japan that suffer from similar problems.