Keihanshin Metropolitan Area Research Articles

Analysis of shopping behavior characteristics in the Keihanshin metropolitan area in Japan based on a person trip survey

ABSTRACT This study analyzed weekday shopping behavior from a home base to a destination using data from the 4th Keihanshin metropolitan area person trip survey. We first analyzed the relationships between occupation and transportation means, transportation means and travel time, and transportation means and duration of time at the destination. Results of a chi-square test, residual analysis, and correspondence analysis confirmed that employed persons tend to travel by cars while unemployed persons tend to travel by bus or walk. The relationship between travel time and duration of time at the destination was also revealed according to transportation means. Results of a cluster analysis then classified shopping behaviors to expose four patterns. Finally, multiple regression analyzed the degree to which certain variables were related to duration of time at the destination. Results confirmed a strong relationship between duration of time at the destination and travel time. The degree of this factor’s influence on other variables was also clarified. The value of these findings is that the relationship between travel time by means of transportation and the duration of time at the destination was clarified using statistical analysis. We then found a highly accurate equation that estimates the duration of time at a destination from the travel time. If the duration of time at a destination can be estimated, it may be possible to more accurately develop the structure of rest facilities, the number of parking lots, the degree of congestion, and so on, which can be associated with the customer’s usage behavior in a shopping site. This research in this paper contributes to the field of urban analysis and marketing by presenting a new effective method for person trip survey and analysis.

Changes of Restaurant Locational Characteristics in the Period of Food Service Industry Restructuring since the 2000s: Small-Area Analysis of Keihanshin Metropolitan Area

Changes of Restaurant Locational Characteristics in the Period of Food Service Industry Restructuring since the 2000s: Small-Area Analysis of Keihanshin Metropolitan Area

Functional diversity in Keihanshin Metropolitan Area

ABSTRACTDiversity is one of the defining characteristics of complex adaptive systems – systems made up of heterogeneous agents whose interactions form a dynamic network resulting in emergent behaviour. Recent research shows that various types of diversity increase with the scale of the system. This paper uses ideas and methods from community ecology to define business types as functional traits and to calculate functional diversity as a measure of the economic diversification in an urban system. It asks how functional diversity changes with the size of the city within an urban region. Using Keihanshin Metropolitan Area in Japan as an example, the paper concludes that while functional diversity scales with city size, it reaches saturation due to the limitations of the business types classification systems. It argues that regardless of the observed saturation, the method can reveal the structural complexity of the city, showing what types of industries form its economy. It also discovers functions common to all cities in the region, and calls for further development of the method by introducing the multidimensional analysis and additional measures of diversity.

Distribution of perfluoroalkyl compounds in Osaka Bay and coastal waters of Western Japan

Perfluoroalkyl acids (PFAAs) including perfluoroalkyl sulfonates (PFSAs) and perfluoroalkyl carboxylates (PFCAs) were analyzed in sediment samples taken from Ajifu Waterway in Osaka city, from Osaka Bay, and from Kagoshima Bay, as well as in fifteen seawater samples collected from Osaka Bay and coastal waters of Western Japan. In all sediment samples, only PFCAs were detected, and the highest concentration was determined in Ajifu Waterway, where ΣPFAA was 58990 ng kg−1 dry weight. The total concentrations of PFAAs in sea water samples ranged between the limit of quantification and 53.4 ng L−1, and perfluorohexanoic acid was the most prevalent and had the highest concentration of 37 ng L−1. The changes in the patterns and concentrations of PFAAs in Osaka Bay and coastal waters of Western Japan indicate that the PFAAs in surface waters are influenced by sources from Keihanshin Metropolitan Area, mainly the Yodo River basin, and the dilution effect which naturally occurs during their transport to the Pacific Ocean.

A Longitudinal Analysis of the Modal Share of Cars in the Keihanshin Metropolitan Area

The phenomenon wherein the modal share of cars and the total distance traveled by car begin to decrease - referred to as “peak car” - has been occurring in the Keihanshin Metropolitan Area in western Japan. It is believed that age, sex, cohort, and the built environment, affect patterns of car use. This research aims to quantify the characteristics of car use and estimate the modal share of cars in 2020, taking the above-mentioned factors into account. Data from person trip surveys conducted every 10 years from 1990 to 2010 are used to analyze the longitudinal changes in car use characteristics. The results indicate that characteristics of car use are indeed related to age, sex, cohort, and built environment, and the modal share of cars will decrease in the central regions of the Keihanshin Metropolitan Area by 2020 while increasing on the edges of the metropolitan area.

GIS-Based Urbanization Prediction Model Considering Neighborhood Relationship of the Unit of the “Block” in the Outskirts of Metropolitan Area

On the outskirts of the metropolitan areas in Japan, the rapid development of urban areas and the improvement in transportation networks have brought various land use problems in their wake, including urban diffusion and the phenomenon of urban sprawl. There is a strong need for accurate predictions of land-use change and future urbanization, as well as investigation of the appropriateness of present land use controls and the land use controls that will be required in the future. This study took as its object the outskirts of the Keihanshin (Kyoto-Osaka-Kobe) Metropolitan Area, the second largest conurbation in Japan after the Tokyo Metropolitan Area, and used the digital maps and spatial analysis offered by GIS. It aimed to: 1) describe the characteristics of land use controls, land use and urbanization; 2) develop an urbanization prediction model that considers the neighboring relationship of neighboring areas on a 100 m mesh unit; 3) apply this model to the study area and verify its validity regarding the conditions of present land use; 4) compare urbanization prediction results by this model with the present land use controls; and 5) make predictions for future urbanization and propose remedial measures for future land use controls.

全国的に整備される統計資料を利用した都市圏内就業者の時刻別空間分布の推定

Distribution of human suffering due to earthquake depends largely on the spatial distribution of population at the moment the earthquake occurs. For this, a computational model for predicting day-long spatio-temporal distribution of commuters was developed by using a number of nation-wide statistical data such as Population Census of Japan, Survey on Time Use and Leisure Activities, and Establishment and Enterprise Census. The model predicts behavior of individual commuters by considering their attributes including gender, occupation, place of work and residence, and whether he/she works at home or not. As a case study, the proposed model was applied to the Keihanshin Metropolitan Area for estimating distribution of commuters, and those who unable to return home in case of the wide-area traffic interruption due to earthquake.

An Analysis of Location Choice Behavior of Distribution Facilities in Keihanshin Metropolitan Area

An Analysis of Location Choice Behavior of Distribution Facilities in Keihanshin Metropolitan Area

ANALYSIS OF RAILWAY USER TRAVEL BEHAVIOUR PATTERNS OF DIFFERENT AGE GROUPS

This study presents an analysis of travel behavior patterns of different age groups of urban railway users in the Keihanshin metropolitan area of Japan. The objective is to examine the relationship between urban public transportation use and urban activities. The study examines urban activities within aging societies, focusing on the differences in travel behavior of railway users by age groups.

Reconstruction of Distribution System Formed by Supermarket : Two Case Studies in the Keihanshin Metropolitan Area

Reconstruction of Distribution System Formed by Supermarket : Two Case Studies in the Keihanshin Metropolitan Area

A Study on the Campus Formations and Location in Keihanshin Metropolitan Area (Kyoto, Osaka, Kobe), Before the End of the Pacific War

Among the university campuses in Keihanshin (Kyoto, Osaka, Kobe) metropolitan area, about thirty percent of them were developed until the end of the Pacific War (1945), under the old system of education. This study shows the stages of campus distribution in this area until 1945, through plotting og the campus locations. In the twenties and thirties, decentralization was going on, especially by developments in the suburbs, among the railroads. Also this study tries to categorize the campuses according to the process of developments, planning methods, and locations. We see advanced planning methods of making good use of the geographical features, and of combination with the land re-adjustment projects in several examples.

Travel Behavior of the Urban Elderly in Kyoto, Japan

The purpose of this paper is to analyze travel behavior of the elderly in Kyoto City, based on data derived from the Person Trip Survey of the Keihanshin Metropolitan Area in 1990 and my own questionnaire survey held at the Golden Age Academy in March, 1997.Spatial variation of travel behavior rate was examined. Generally, a lower rate of travel was observed in peripheral districts, while a higher rate was observed in central or inner districts. Such a pattern is different from the spatial distribution of the elderly population. A correlation analysis exhibits that the decision not to travel is related to variables such as cohabitation rate with a son/daughter and rate of retirement.Characteristics of intraurban trips by the elderly are clarified. If we select only the elderly people who went out for purposes like shopping, their mean distance between residence and destination was actually longer than for their non-elderly counterparts (specifically, housewives and persons without an occupation and under 64 years old). Therefore, the proposition that the distance elderly people travel is shorter than that for non-elderly people is not necessarily the case.Looking at various activities and trip destinations by the elderly, the results of the questionnaire survey show that within Kyoto there are many recreational places that the elderly enjoy. In particular, monthly fairs held at well-known shrines and public facilities for the elderly were investigated as examples. The fair had appeared before the period when population ageing began to attract attention in Japan. Public facilities, which appeared as a response to the ageing of population, are not very popular.Finally, I suggest, based on these findings, that current social services are somewhat inappropriate.‘Soft’support is needed more than‘hard’support. It would be more helpful to the elderly to increase ease of access to existing opportunities and facilities rather than to construct facilities exclusively used by them. Such a consideration, I hope, will lead to the enhancement of the lives of Japan's elderly population.

Gender Characteristic of Commuting Pattern

Previous studies of commuting in urban areas mainly in North America and Europe during the past two decades, listed in Table 1, have confirmed that women commute times and distances shorter than men. In Japan, however, there has been few investigation about this topic so far. This paper, therefore, focuses on the differences of commuting patterns between men and women. The study area (Figure 1) is the Osaka Metropolitan Area (OMA). The data used here are obtained from the 3rd Person-trip Survey of the Keihanshin Metropolitan Area conducted in 1990. This data source includes information on age, residence, workplace and trip purpose of every subject trip-maker.In the third section, the overall distributions of workers' residence and employment in the OMA for both sexes are outlined. With regard to residence of the workers, the rate of employed women shows an uneven distribution pattern and is highest in the CBD and declines toward the suburbs (Figure 2): it presents a great contrast to the one of employed men, whose distribution is relatively high and shows an even pattern across the study area. As for workplace of the workers, it can be seen that a large proportion of women are employed in the outer suburbs as well as in the CBD (Figure 3): on the other hand, a significant portion of the men's workplaces are located not only in the CBD but also in the inner city and the inner suburbs which are basically industrial areas.The fourth section is devoted to a gender comparison of commuting patterns in terms of time, distance and trip mode. The results obtained (Figures 4 through 8) are consistent with the previous finding: women show shorter commuting times and distances than men. It also turned out that women tend to use walking/bicycle and not to use automobile.A remarkable feature of female employment in Japan is the M-shaped curve (see Figure 9 for the OMA) for the relationship between labour participation rate and age, and the curve has two peaks for women in their twenties and fourties. These two peaks are thought to imply two different types of labour: whereas the former represents full-time jobs, the latter are part-time jobs, mainly due to the heavy responsibility of housework. When the female commuting trips of the groups in their 20's and 30-40's are selected, it is clear that the commuting distances and times of the former are much longer than the latter and similar to men's (Tables 2 and 3). Hence, a general statement that women commute shorter times and distances than men does not hold when women are subdivided into different age groups.

京阪神大都市圏における多核化の動向と郊外核の特性

本稿では,郊外化がいち早く進展した京阪神大都市圏において,多核化へ向けてどのような動向が考えられるのかを,都心域と郊外核間の特性比較に焦点をあてて検討した.核の特性分析には,核の詳細な就業構造や多様な流動パターンを示すデータと,都市域よりも小地域単位のデータの利用が有効である.そこでこうした指標が利用可能なパーソントリップ調査を分析資料として,核の抽出と機能分類および交通利用パターン,核の勢力圏構造を検討した. 現段階では,京阪神大都市圏にはアメリカ合衆国にみられるような都心域を凌駕する郊外核成長の動向はみられないが,消費活動では階層構造的な「補完的多核化」が進展していることがわかった.そして就業活動では,弱い「補完的多核化」の兆しを示したが,機能的に都心域と類似した郊外核の成長はごくわずかであった.また女子就業構造・交通利用パターンにおいても,都心域と郊外核では異なる特色を示した.

大阪市近郊藤井寺市住民による飲食店の利用

The central city still has important functions in the Keihanshin Metropolitan area, although it is often argued that metropolitan suburbs are no longer merely residential places but have become more self-supporting with the suburbanization of retail and other activities. For example, although restaurants have been substantially suburbanized, the location quotients of restaurants in the suburbs are still not so high as those of retail businesses. This article is a case study of Fujiidera City in the suburbs of Osaka, to examine how suburban inhab-itants choose restaurants in the CBD and the suburbs. The results are as follows: 1) Among the inhabitants in Fujiidera City, there are mainly two types in terms of ways of choos-ing where to eat in restaurants. One is the type who use restaurants only in the suburbs for various purposes (type A). The other is those who change the place according to their purpose (type B). 2) The inhabitants of type B use restaurants near the large stations in the suburbs when they go shopping. When they want to eat at restaurants with their families, they use roadside restaurants in the suburbs with ease of parking. When they want to use restaurants for leisure with their friends, they use restaurants in the CBD, especially near the railway terminals. 3) Although most of the inhabitants do not commute to the CBD, they appreciate restaurants in the CBD for their food and atmosphere of higher quality. Judging from these comments, we can say that restaurants in the suburbs do not yet have as much variety as restaurants in the CBD.

Space-time Patterns of Daily Behaviour of the Residents in Kita-ward, Kyoto City

The purpose of this paper is to classify the typical patterns of daily behaviour of residents within space-time and to consider the relationships between the patterns of space-time use and individual characteristics of the residents. Classification of daily behaviour has been tried in terms of 2-dimensions of either purpose and area or purpose and time. Here I try to classify them considering all 3-dimensions of purpose, time, and area based on the distance matrix indicating the dissimilarity among the patterns of space-time path of each resident.First, the 3-dimensional matrix of the individual daily behaviour in a time-space dimension involving 5-purposes, 48-times and 17-areas categories is prepared from the person-trip data of the Keihanshin Metropolitan Area in 1990. Then the patterns of daily behaviour are cluster-analyzed by the ward method.The results of cluster analysis are presented in Fig. 2. In this process of clustering, the most effective factor is existence of a trip and a trip-purpose. The factors of the length of staying at a destination, the multiple-trip and the place of a destination have an influence on the process in turn.For example, about 40 percent of residents make no trip (CL1) or a private-purpose path (CL2 and CL3), about 17 percent make school-purpose paths, and the others make work-purpose paths. Residents belonging to CL1 are mainly housekeepers or unemployed. Residents of CL2 are also housekeepers, and they have only one private-trip within their own district in a day. CL3, making a very-long private trip at night, includes many college students in Kita-ward. Regarding workers, their paths are classified by their work places respectively (e. g. CL5, CL6, CL7, Nakagyo-workers cluster, CL10, CL11 and CL13). Further, the cluster of workers in Nakagyo-ward is devided into two clusters by a multiple-trip; CL8 making the HWH-path and CL9 making the HWBH-path.In fact, space-time paths of each cluster are represented in that way is different from each other. Fig. 3 shows typical behaviour patterns of each clusters. The main features of these patterns are as follows: Type CL6 presents the space-time of the employees working in Kita-ward and Kamigyo-ward who go to work at 7:30 and start working at 8:00 and enjoy private activities (i. e., eating lunch) at about 12:00 to 13:00. After that, they return to their business work and work till 17:00. The average of their commuting time is very short (about 30min.). The all workers- cluster contains HWH path and sometimes private D trip. For example, the path of Type CL6 is summarized as HwdBndHbnh. Type CL13 is the pattern of the workers in Osaka City, taking about one hour to commute. Because of their long commuting time their paths contain 94% of HWH path. Students less than 18 years old are classified into type CL4. They go to school at 7:30, and most of them go home by 16:00. Their typical path is represented as HSHdh. The pattern of college students, is described as HsdnHdh (CL3). They go to school at 10:00 and go home at 14:00, then they enjoy private activities till 22:00. Type CL2 shows the patterns of the housekeepers, who go shopping from 10:00 to 16:00-17:00.These results lead to the conclusion that behabioural patterns can be inductively classified by the similarity of time-space paths, depending on individual characteristics of residents and their trip-characteristics.

Application of computer graphics to regional trunk road network planning

The author attempts to demonstrate the use of computer graphics to provide an efficient and effective visual presentation method for transportation planning. First, the basic concept of the visual presentation method of planning is explained and the required hardware is introduced. The information presented graphically by the proposed method is then shown for each step in the process of regional trunk road network planning in the Keihanshin Metropolitan Area of Japan: analysis of the traffic-flow patterns in the study area; development of a traffic-simulation system, including a traffic-assignment model; and evaluation of the future trunk road network. Last, future extensions of the visual presentation method are discussed.

The Changes of the Commutation Activity and the Socio-economicStructure in the Peripheral Zone beyond the Keihanshin Metropolitan Area

The Changes of the Commutation Activity and the Socio-economicStructure in the Peripheral Zone beyond the Keihanshin Metropolitan Area

Structural Changes from the Viewpoint of the Commutation Distance in the Keihanshin Metropolitan Area

Structural Changes from the Viewpoint of the Commutation Distance in the Keihanshin Metropolitan Area

The Activiation of Urban Core Areas by Transport Improvements

The study aims at explaining agglomerative trends of urban activities employing quantitative data. In addition, from a standpoint of the activation of urban core areas, it proposes a method of examination of effective plans, which are prepared in order to improve transport networks. In this paper, a two-level analysis is presented. Firstly, urban core areas are designated on the basis of certain criteria. Their constituent characteristics are also analysed from various angles. Secondly, the “Potential Estimation Model” is developed in order to assess the degree of locational potentiality of urban activities in each designated core area. The same model is also employed for purpose of the impact assessment process of transport improvements upon core areas. The method is then applied to the Keihanshin (Kyoto, Osaka, Kobe) Metropolitan Area, and its validity is examined.