Pro-Public Transportation Mobility Management Approaches to Alleviating Winter Traffic Issues in Hokkaido

摘要

Hokkaido, the northernmost island of Japan, is characterized by a cold, snowy climate, and snowfall and road freezing there cause driving conditions to deteriorate in winter. This results in various traffic hazards, including increases in traffic congestion and traffic accidents. Physical measures that have been continuously implemented to minimize these problems include the spreading of anti-freezing agent and the development of snow removal systems. However, little effort has been made to conduct transportation demand management (TDM), except for the provision of visibility information to drivers for driving safety or traffic control. Although TDM has not been utilized as a solution for winter traffic issues, its necessity and measures have been intensively discussed in the field of transport engineering. This study outlines two trial cases of Mobility Management (MM) that encourage commuting mode changes from car to public transportation as kinds of TDM, and examines the results. The MM trials were conducted in winter in Sapporo. One MM trial used questionnaires and the other used a Website. In both trials, subjects were requested to report their commuting transport details, including transport modes and trip time, and they received feedback from the trial organizer on their commuting transport behavior. In both trials, some subjects changed their commuting mode from car to public transportation as a result of the information provided, including the feedback given by the organizer and public transportation promotional materials. These results indicate that MM has the potential to encourage people to use public transportation. Increased public transportation use in a cold, snowy city like Sapporo could reduce the traffic congestion that significantly worsens in winter from snowfall and road icing, while realizing environmentally friendly transport.