International comparison of the relationship between urban structure and the service level of urban public transportation—A comprehensive analysis in local cities in Japan, France and Germany

It is said that one of the most important keys to realizing a compact city is to develop very convenient urban public transportation and attractive pedestrian spaces, which bring liveliness to the city center. However, existing data is incomplete and not clear enough to clarify the relationship between the development of very convenient urban public transportation systems and compact urban structure. In this study, we quantitatively clarify the relationship between urban structure and the service level of urban public transportation including railways and tramways, and compare them among local cities in Japan, France and Germany, targeting all local cities where the populations are over one hundred thousand. Initially, we investigate urban public transportation frequencies of railways and tramways compared to the distribution of population and pedestrian spaces in city centers of all target cities in Japan, France and Germany. Then, we analyze the relationship between service frequencies at stations of the urban public transportation system and the urban structure following two viewpoints: the spatial distribution of population around the station and the spatial distribution of pedestrian spaces in the city center. As a result, in all three countries, generally the populations of the surrounding areas of stations with higher service frequencies are confirmed to be larger. As for the ratio of the population of the surrounding areas within a radius of 500 m from railway and tramway stations accounting for the population of each city, we showed the ratio of the population in station areas in France and Germany is high compared with that of Japan. Moreover, as for the proximity of pedestrian spaces to railway and tramway stations, we confirmed that the proximity of pedestrian spaces to railway and tramway stations in Japan is not high compared with France and Germany