The Changes in the Central Part of Kofu City with the Expansion of Parking Spaces

Abstract

Most cities in Japan have developed under the influence of motorization since 1960. Many downtown travelers come from auto-oriented suburban areas, and thus the need for downtown parking spaces arises. In the central part of the cities parking lots have increased in number and have become an important complementary land use which stimulates other activities. Also they are an integral part of the urban transport system.The author investigated the distribution and the process of formation of parking lots to explain the change in the central part of a local city due to motorization taking Kofu city as an example.The results of this study are as follows:1) Approximately eleven percent of the land is now off-street parking lots. Parking lots tend to encircle the central commercial area and constitute a parking zone there. The pattern of parking lots can be shown by their form and structure. Short-term parking lots or multi-deck parking lots are located in the downtown area and long-term or surface parking lots are located on the fringes.2) The study area had 526 parking facilities in 1987, compared with 162 in 1971. Parking lots show a recent tendency to be developed in the transition zone and not to be developed either the central commercial area or the fringes.3) The conversion of residential land uses to parking lots are the greatest in number. However the conversion rate of official land use into parking lots is high as compared to other land-use categories.4) The expansion of parking spaces has caused the relocation of the existing facilities. The places where the existing facilities are relocated change according to the period. Wholesale and industrial facilities tend to relocate along the main roads outside the study area and official facilities tend to relocate inside the study area.5) Parking lots provide an interim use of land and have often been replaced by more intensive land use such as office buildings of three or more storeys. Among the types of parking lots, the surface type easily becomes the subject of conversion into other facilities. That is, large scale surface parking lots offer a possibility of changing the urban structure.