Transport Planning and Management in the Tokyo Metropolitan Region: Its History, Current Situation, and Future Perspectives

Abstract

This chapter aims to explore the history of transport system development, travel and freight demand characteristics, and issues in future transport planning in the Tokyo metropolitan region. According to in the 5th Tokyo Person Trip Survey, conducted in 2008, the average daily number of trips is 2.45, and this has not changed over the last two decades. The railway’s modal share has increased, while that of private cars has decreased in the last decade. Based on the Freight Flow Survey in 2013, 2.85 million tons of freight was moved in the Tokyo metropolitan region each day. The unique characteristics of the region’s urban railway system are that many private companies have constructed and operated, and that the through operation among several routes has been introduced widely. Regarding roads, the Tokyo Metropolitan Expressway is a unique infrastructure, the likes of which are seldom seen in most of the world’s cities in the world. On the contrary, Tokyo’s airport and seaport systems have less uniqueness and competitiveness compared with major airport and port systems in the East Asia region. The basic transport infrastructures of road, railway, airport, and seaport in the Tokyo metropolitan region have almost been completed, pursuant to a series of intensive transport infrastructure planning, with the objective of assisting economic growth. Looking to the future, the basic direction of the region’s transport planning in the coming decades will be developing a better management system to secure high utilization of the present transport infrastructures. Some of related planning issues are highlighted based on the future socioeconomic perspective of the region.