ON THE LOCAL PASSENGER TRAFFIC IN THE NORTHERN PART OF THE JAPAN SEA COAST

Abstract

In recent years we have shad many studies on the hierarchy of central places, or the relationships between towns and their surrounding areas. The writer researched the local passenger traffic for a n-teasurement of actual interaction, and some guantitave data on origin, destination, route and dire-ction of traffic flows. By analysis of these data, he could see results as follows: 1) The relationships betw ween. regional centers and their umlands can bee down. by the following formula; Y=aX-b where Y=frequency of convergence, on the center, X=distanee from the center to each hamlet in the ummhland. a=the ideal frequency of trips to the center in the community, and b=afigure that expresses the relation between frequency of convergence upon. and distance to the central place. 2) It can be said regarding the formula in general. that the larger the. center, the smaller the value of b. But in the case of the isolated center, some of the smaller ones have more spacious unhands and their values of b. are very small. So We may have to pay attention too not only the population of centers, but also to their locational pattern, in deciding the hierarchy of central places. 3) In the Japanese country where no railway is available, the average person covers trim of a distance of 2_??_2.5km on foot. In the case of tripe of about 3km or more, they commonly use the bicycle or bus. The bicycle is predominantly used for traveling distances of 3_??_7km; the bus prevai-lling for the ones of more 8km. 4) There are the following relationships between two neighbouring centers. a) If the one has a population less than 1.5 tunes as many as the other, these two traffic communities are in the same class. b) If the one is 1.6_??_3.7 times more largely populated than the other, the traffic community of the-former belongs to a higher class than does the latter. c) If the population is 7 times or more greater, the larger traffic community includes the smaller-one, and the cities are both part of the same traffic community.