Lab for Innovative Infrastructure Systems

[June 4 – 5, 2022]
M1 Hasegawa, OG Tabuchi, and OB Kimura presented their papers at the Comittee of Infrastructure Planning and Managemant held online on June 4 (Sat.) and 5 (Sun.). The titles of their presentations are as follows.

Time-of-day Charging Simulation of Urban Railways Based on Structural Changes in Demand
(Comet Kimura and Daisuke Fukuda)
Ex-post Evaluation of Recent Inter-regional Allocation Policies in Japan: A QSE Approach
(Keita Hasegawa and Daisuke Fukuda)
The Impact of Urban MaaS Introduction on Lifestyle Behavior and Evaluation of Subscription Plans: A Simulation Analysis in the Tokyo Metropolitan Area
(Keiko Tabuchi and Daisuke Fukuda)

Other presentations related to Dr. Fukuda’s work were as follows

Development of the Activity Simulator “Tokyo Metropolitan Area ACT” and its Application to the Study of Urban Transportation Policies
(Ryoji Ishii, Daisuke Fukuda, Hideki Yanaginuma, Takahiko Kusakabe, Wataru Mogi, Koshi Isono, Takeshi Shibukawa, Hirotsugu Suenari, Ryuta Nishi, Shota Ito)
Fusion Method of Activity Simulation and Observation Data in Tokyo Metropolitan Area
(Akane Komiyama, Kuniaki Sasaki, Daisuke Fukuda, Ryoji Ishii)
Individual Activity Estimation Using Activity Simulator and Cell Phone Base Station Data -Assessing the Applicability to the Corona Disaster
(Ryoji Ishii, Kuniaki Sasaki, Daisuke Fukuda, Yuhan Gao, Akane Komiyama)

Dr. Takayama of Kanazawa University, Dr. Okuda of Nanzan University, and Dr. Kono of Tohoku University gave us advices on the improvement of the model and the direction of future application of the model. All of their comments were very helpful for the submission of the paper. I would like to take this opportunity to thank them.

[Hasegawa]

[26 May 2019]

Mr. Dantsuji (D3) from our lab gave a speech at the World Conference on Transport Research Society (WCTRS), which was held in Mumbai, India.

In his presentation titled “Simulation-based joint optimization framework for mitigating congestion in multimodal urban network: A macroscopic approach”, he adopted a simulation-based optimization method for traffic demand management using 3D-MFD.

We have received many useful comments regarding the optimization algorithm and transportation network. Here, we would like to take this opportunity to express our gratitude towards them.

[8-10 December 2018]

At the 23^rd Annual Conference of the Hong Kong Society for Transportation Studies (HKSTS) held on December 8^th to 10^th, Mr. Shiroma (M1) presented his research on causal effect analysis of the Metropolitan Tokyo expressway toll reform scheme, “Tolls and Traffic Demand: Evidence from the 2016 Toll Reform Scheme for the Metropolitan Tokyo Urban Expressway Network”. We have received comments from Dr. William Lam of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and others on the estimation of elasticities and other issues. We would like to take this opportunity to express our gratitude towards them.

[2 December 2018]

Mr. Dantsuji (D3) made a presentation at the Applied Regional Science Conference (ARSC), which was held at Nanzan University in Nagoya on December 2^nd and 3^rd.

In his presentation titled “Departure Time and Mode Choice in Urban Cities with Bottleneck Congestion and Crowding Cost”, he analyzed the effects of fare policy by constructing a model for simultaneous choice of transportation modes and departure times that considering hypercongestion in the road network and in-train congestion on railroads.

Prof. Takayama of Kanazawa University and Prof. Fumi of Kyoto University provided us with very useful comments on the analyses of equilibrium, fare policies, and comparison with real-world observation. Furthermore, Prof. Takayama graciously agreed to be a discussant. We would like to take this opportunity to express our gratitude towards him.

[23-25 November 2018]

The 58^th Autumn Conference on Infrastructure Planning and Management was held at Oita University from November 23^rd to 25^th. In our lab, Mr. Shiroma (M1) presented in the oral presentation category, and Mr. Abe (OB), Mr. Shinohara (OB) and Ms. Kobayashi (OG), alumni of our laboratory who graduated in 2018, presented in the poster session category. Ms. Kobayashi’s poster presentation was highly evaluated and she received the “Excellent Poster Award”. We would like to take this opportunity to those who provided comments at the conference.

For the research title, “Short-Term Impact Analysis of Expressway Toll Scheme in the Tokyo Metropolitan Area”, Mr. Shiroma (M1) examined the short-term impacts of new expressway toll scheme in the Tokyo Metropolitan Area (introduced in April 2016) on each OD pair trip traffic volume and route traffic volume. A causal effect analysis was adopted on the impact and a route choice model was constructed.

Moreover, under the research title, “Effects of Life Events on Household Car Ownership: Analysis Using Large Household Panel Data”, Mr. Abe constructed a discrete choice model of the effects of life events such as house moving, marriage, and childbirth on changes in household car ownership and vehicle type.

In addition, Mr. Shinohara presented his research title, “”A Study on Tour-Based Pattern Selection Model for Freight Vehicles within Urban Areas”. For his research, he constructed a tour-based pattern selection model on instead of a conventional trip-based model. He then conducted a simulation on the impact of the introduction of time-based pricing policy in urban areas on the tour patterns of freight vehicles.

Ms. Kobayashi’s research topic was “Model Analysis of Wide-Area Sightseeing Excursion Behavior Using Wi-Fi Packet Sensing Data”. She first constructed a sightseeing behavior model of tourists in Hokkaido by collecting data from Wi-Fi packet sensors, and then conducted a simulation of tourists’ choice of visiting places.

[19 November 2018]

The annual JICA lecture on “Urban Transport Planning” for transport practitioners in developing countries was held again. Prof. Fukuda lectured on the basics of traffic demand forecasting, including the four-step travel model, to an audience of about 20 students. Mr. Kaoru Yamada (Oriental Consultants Global Co., Ltd.), an alumnus of our lab, also attended the lecture as well.

[18 November 2018]

Mr. Tsuru, an alumnus of our lab, presented the his master’s thesis at the 2018 National Conference of the City Planning Institute of Japan (CPIJ) that held from 16^th to 18^th November. He adopted an analytical model for predicting the number of newly established retail store locations and withdrawals in a provincial city on a detailed spatial basis. We would like to thank all the participants for their comments at his presentation. The content of his research has also been published as the following paper.

T., Tsuru, & D., Fukuda. (2018). Determinants of establishment and closing decisions for small retail stores in a provincial city. Journal of the City Planning Institute of Japan, 53(3), 1529-1536. (English version   Japanese version)

The abstract of the paper is shown as follows.

The hollowing out of the central urban area in local cities is an urgent problem. In order to solve the problem, in local hub cities nationwide “Urban Facility Location Plan” is being planned and implemented. With this background, the objective of this study is to empirically and comprehensively reveal the factor that the retail store establish or close in local hub cities. For that, we construct a count data model that can predict the number of establishment and closing of retail stores in the detailed 1 km mesh level to analyze the impact of implementation of urban planning in detailed regional units. Based on the parameter estimation results, the size of the commercial area has a positive influence on the number of establishments, whereas it has a negative effect on the number of closings. The distance to the large shopping mall has negative effects on both the number of establishments and closings. We also find that in the central urban area the spatial effect parameter of the closing model tends to be positive suggesting that closing in neighboring areas may prompt closing in the current mesh. Finally, with the implementation of Urban Facility Location Plan in mind, we estimated the influence of induction of large commercial facilities to the central urban area on the number of locations and closings at retail stores.

[2018/10/25 ~10/26]

The Regional Symposium for Infrastructure Development (RSID8) was held at the University of the Philippines Diliman, and (M2 students) Ms. Kaneko and Ms. Arum from our laboratory presented their research.

This symposium is jointly held by the University of the Philippines, Kasetsart University (Thailand), and our university, and is an opportunity for civil engineering students to exchange research.

Ms. Arum presented “Modeling the Relationship between Transit-Oriented Development and Land Value”, while Ms. Kaneko presented “Impact of Various Tolling Schemes on Traffic on Networks: A Preliminary Investigation with Recursive Logit Route Choice Model”.
The presentations provided an opportunity for a meaningful exchange of opinions on sustainable transportation.

We were also able to experience “Toki,” a public transportation system that runs on campus, and “Grab,” a car hailing system, which helped us deepen our understanding of transportation in Southeast Asia!

[4-6 August 2018]

Prof. Fukuda, Mr. Nakanishi (Research Assistant), and Mr. Azarel (M2), Mr. Hirabayashi (MS), and Ms. Kaneko (MS) presented their papers at the international conference, International Symposium of Transport Simulation & International Workshop on Traffic Data Collection and its Standardization (ISTS & IWTDCS), which was held at Ehime University.

The topics of each presenter are shown as below:

Mr. Azarel: “Spatial distribution of Blablacar’s intercity peer-to-peer ride-sharing trips: Case study of Spain”

Mr. Nakanishi: “Feature Extraction of Inter-region Travel Pattern Using Random Matrix Theory and Mobile Phone Location Data”

Mr. Hirabayashi: “Cross comparison of spatial partitioning methods for urban transportation network”

Ms. Kaneko: “Route Choice Analysis in the Tokyo Metropolitan Area Using a Link-Based Recursive Logit Model with Link Awareness”

Moreover, Prof. Fukuda gave a lecture on the introduction of ETC2.0 based on probe data.

[18 July 2018]

Ms. Iokura (M1) presented her graduation research at IATBR2018@UC Santa Barbara (UCSB), which is a study on the extraction of tourists’ behavior pattern by Wi-Fi based continuous monitoring. We would like to take this opportunity to express our gratitude towards anyone who provided comments.

The conference venue, UCSB, is located along the Pacific Ocean in a moderate climate. Thank you to Prof. Kostas Goulias and his staff at UCSB.