Lab for Innovative Infrastructure Systems

[2019/01/25].

Today, Mr. Imaoka and Mr. Suzuki, M2 students in the Civil Engineering course, have completed the main body of their master’s thesis.

Mr. Imaoka’s research question is whether the Fundamental Diagram, which is often used for automobile traffic flow, can be applied to the actual operation of urban trains that operate at high frequency. He has verified the reproducibility of the current situation using observed data, but the model does not fit the actual situation well, and he is struggling to find out which point is the cause of the problem.

Mr. Suzuki has optimized an intercity transportation network that takes into account passenger excursion behavior in 9 cities across Japan, and has confirmed that the shape of the network changes significantly compared to the shape without the inclusion of excursion behavior.

We are now approaching the submission and presentation of the abstracts, so please work hard in your last spurt.

[2018/01/10]

Happy New Year … Today we had our second ‘nabe’ (hotpot) party, which we call a New Year’s party! It’s been cold lately, so let’s warm up with the ‘nabe’!

[2018/12/28]

Our laboratory has been lightly cleaning after each seminar, but today we called it a ‘big’ lab cleaning and thoroughly cleaned the areas that are not usually cleaned, such as tidying and dusting the bookshelves, wiping windows and blinds. Let us keep the Japanese tradition of cleaning at the end of the year to welcome the New Year.

We had a wonderful time at the lab’s year-end party, where our alumni, including Dr. Yanaginuma, a lecturer at Tokyo University of Science, and Prof. Fukuda’s family members, came to the party.

Many people also came to the 2nd round party. Let’s make sure we have another fun day like this next year, so that we can all live a fulfilling life!

[2018/12/27]

The annual midterm presentation of the five laboratories of the Tokyo Tech Transport Studies Unit (TSU) was jointly held on campus. The TSU year-end party was held after the presentations by B4 and M2 students and critiques by their professors. The professors told the students to make their research presentations interesting, and I personally agreed with their advice.

From our laboratory, (B4 student) Mr. Kita, (M2 students) Ms. Hirabayashi, Mr. Imaoka, Ms. Kaneko, and Mr. Suzuki presented their research. M1 students also participated in the lecture and received some good inspiration. There are less than two months left until the presentation of the thesis and dissertation, so please take care of yourself and do your best in your last spurt!

[2018/12/20]

Today was the last seminar of this year, so we had our annual dinner in the lab! The menu this time was sumptuous: motsu nabe, sashimi of sea bream, and simmered sea bream. The ‘Nabe'(Hotpot) party is the best in the cold season. Prof. Fukuda bought a ‘nabe’ set for us. Thank you very much!

Mr. Shiroma (M1) prepared the sea bream for us! It was nice!

[2018/12/20].

Today we had our last lab seminar of the year. Mr. Oka (D2) and Mr. Dantsuji (D3) presented their work.

Mr. Oka analyzed the spatio-temporal flow patterns of freight vehicles in the Tokyo metropolitan area based on a tour pattern selection model by using the Recursive Logit Model.

Mr. Dantuji is researching the optimal billing method by constructing a simultaneous transportation mode and departure time selection model that takes into account hypercongestion in the road network and congestion in the railroad trains.

[2018/12/13]

This lab seminar was given by Mr. Kita (B4) and Ms. Arum (M2).

Mr. Kita’s research aims to clarify Japanese people’s willingness to use fully automated driving and ride-sharing, which is expected to expand with the spread of automated driving, through SP survey questionnaires.

Ms. Arum is conducting an analysis of factors affecting land prices in the Tokyo Metropolitan Area by station walking distance. Here, a multilevel model is used to analyze a hierarchical sample in order to take into account correlations among adjacent neighborhoods. The results were compared with the conventional single level model and tested with the intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) and the log-likelihood test, which showed that the multilevel model was superior.

[November 29, 2018].

Mr. Hirabayashi (M2) and Ms. Kaneko (M2) presented their research in this seminar.

Mr. Hirabayashi’s research, “Extracting Distribution Patterns of Pedestrian Flow Speed-Density Relationships Considering Spatial Correlation,” addresses the local spatial nature of pedestrian speed-density relationships. He uses the data from the Lausanne train station in Switzerland. Moreover, he tries to elucidate the mechanism of the occurrence of local spatiality.

Ms. Kaneko’s research entitled “A Study on the Construction of Sequential Route Selection Behavior and Optimal Charging System” aims to propose an optimal charging system that combines Markovian Traffic Equilibrium (MTE), which is an equilibrium allocation based on a Markov process in which travelers make sequential route choices, and congestion charging optimization.

[2018/11/11~11/16]

My name is Hirabayashi (M2) and I have spent a week from November 11 for a pedestrian flow survey and meeting at Lausanne train station as part of my research activities.

The purpose of the meeting was to verify the results of the analysis and discussion using the walking trajectory tracking data that I had received from the EPFL research team in advance, through the site visit. Although I was not able to confirm the detailed interactions between pedestrians during the actual site visit, I believe that I was able to experience firsthand the differences between Japan and other countries, where traffic is not as regulated as in Japan (e.g., no promotion of right-side traffic), and the aspect of flow is more varied.

I also had a meeting with the research team of EPFL, who provided mes with the data. Although I could understand only a part of what they said because of my poor English, I could understand that they were not so interested in the results of the analysis that I was interested in, and I will continue to make some interesting discussions. (M2, Hirabayashi)

[2018/11/19]

The second semester of the research seminar has now entered its second round of presentations, as all students in the lab have completed their presentations. The second round of this semester started with presentations by Mr. Imaoka (M2) and Mr. Suzuki (M2).

Mr. Imaoka’s research is entitled “Validation of Fundamental Diagram for High-Frequency Urban Railway Operation System” and his goal is to construct a railroad operation model for chronic train delays during congestion using a Fundamental Diagram (FD), which represents the relationship between passenger flow rate and train density. 

Mr. Suzuki’s research, “Optimization of Intercity Transit Networks Considering Passenger’s Tourist Travelling Behavior,” aims to clarify how the optimal intercity transit network can be changed by considering the tourist’s touring behavior.