Research Trends and Results

Analysis of Relation between Trend of Social Economyand Index of Road Traffic
OHASHI Sachiko, Senior researcher
OTANI Satoru, Senior researcher
Research Center for Land and Construction Management, Construction Economics Division( key word ) traffic volume, economic trend, sightseeing /tourism, road transportation in winter season
1. Introduction
Traffic volume is measured by vehicle sensors placed atfixed observation points. In recent years, the technology
to deal with these data has progressed and the possibilityof utilizing these data has widened. In this research, onthe base of road transportation data such as continuously
observed data of traffic volume and probe data of generalvehicles recently accumulated and so on, we tried tograsp the social economic trends. If we can read social
economic trends through road transportation data, fromthe viewpoint of immediacy of gaining data, it will
become possible to widely supply profitable information
to society.
2.

Relation with Economy

About business climate, we analyze the relation between
continuously observed data of traffic volume and index ofbusiness conditions and each index consisting this. In
this analysis, we focus on if the index of traffic volume
goes in front of business climate, correspond with it orcome after it. We also focus on how we should handle thedata of traffic volume to use it adequately.
3. Relation with Tourism
We are analyzing the relation between tourism andcontinuously observed traffic volume. Tourism is alocal industry in the trend of social economy. As theindex concerning tourism, there is a statisticalinvestigation of incoming tourists.
According to“Universal Standard Concerning with Statistics ofIncoming Tourists (2009, 12, Ministry of Tourism)” it isarranged within 5 months and announced in the cycle ofquarter. Comparing with these statistics, the cost is low
because road traffic data is not observed by manpower,and quick summing is possible in short term or short timezone because of all time observation. It could be used
for the trend prospect in numbers of tourists until theannouncement of precise statistics. We analyze therelation between traffic volume and the number ofincoming tourists at the targets of some sightseeing places.
Considering the characteristics of the district such as therelation between the locations of continuously
observation points and sightseeing places, the influenceof common traffic inside the sightseeing place and maintransportation of tourists, we are to pick up sightseeing
places that enables to grasp the trend of tourist’s number
through road traffic data.
4. Influence of Snowfall
In the regions with snow coverage and low
temperature, snowfall during the winter season has alarge influence on local economy and daily lives. By
removing the snow, they try to lessen the influence,
however, the profits gained by removing the snow has notbeen measured properly.
There are the regularobservation traffic data at every observation point
whenever it’s snowfall or not. Together with theweather data, such as the depth of snowfall, the relation
between the situation of the road face and the traffic dataat the observation points can be found. Moreover, usingprobe car data, there is a possibility that we can find moredetails in the relation between the road face situation andthe traffic date on the road network. In our research,using this method, we try to analysis an estimate of theprofits of snow removing.
5.

Conclusion

Road transportation data such as continuously observed
traffic volume has been used in the phase of infrastructure
maintenance and management. However, utilizing in
the phase of social economy for wider supply of
information is to be researched hereafter. We plan toannounce the results of analyzing what we haveintroduced here at any time.