Development of the Pedestrian Information Systemto Improve the Safety in the Intermediate and Mountainous Area
Hiromichi KUBO1, Shuichi MATSUMOTO2, Kenji OKAMURA2, Hisashi KITAGAWA3, Yasuhiko
KUMAGAI2
1. Civil Engineering Division, Kochi prefectural government, Japan
1-2-20, Marunouchi, Kochi, 780-8570, Japan, TEL: +81-88-823-9832
E-mail: hirofumi_miyamoto@ken3.pref.kochi.jp
2. Regional ITS Infrastructure Research Center Research Institute Kochi University of Technology, Japan
3. Tyuonishi Civil Engineering Office, Kochi prefectural government, JapanAbstract
Many districts in the intermediate and mountainous area lack properly constructed sidewalks. With
the aim of improving the safety of pedestrians, we developed an information delivery system thatdraws drivers’ attention with a warning upon detecting a signal from the RFID tag carried by apedestrian.

1 INTRODUCTION
With 83% of the land being forest, Kochi prefecture is characterized by its precipitous terrains. Many
natural disasters such as typhoons and heavy rains hit the prefecture every year. Kochi Prefecture has notestablished a strong economic basis, and speaking of social capital, it is far behind other prefectures. Theintermediate and mountainous area faces an aging population together with declining birthrate anddepopulation. Most public investments tend to flow to the urban area in the current situation where priority isplaced on cost effectiveness.
The local government controls 196 roads, equivalent to 2,788km, and 57% of them are ameliorated. Only
39% of the roads have proper sidewalks, and even in the school zone, about 200 km of them are left intact.
The local government has placed a high priority on the construction of sidewalks in the school zone, but
considering the recent severe fiscal situation, the promotion of construction in the intermediate andmountainous area is likely to be even more difficult in the years to come.
Nonetheless, assuring the safety of school children in the intermediate and mountainous area is an urgent
necessity for road administrators. The road users have high expectations. Thus, we decided to take thesecond best measure to the traditional solution of infrastructure building: implementation of a softwaredeveloped by the most appropriate electronic information technology.

NagoyaOsakaTokyoKochi CityThe Pacific Ocean
Area: 7,105 k㎡Population: 803,000
Population density: 113 /k㎡
Percentage of forested area: 83.3%
Length of coastline: 713km

Figure 1 Profile of Kochi Prefecture

2 UNDERSTANDING CURRENT SITUATION
We introduced the newly developed system to the Togawa district, Shimanto-cho located in western Kochi.
In this district, the number of school-aged children decreased due to the declining birthrate and depopulation,
which led to closure and merging of elementary schools. Consequently, the children who had attended to theclosed school were forced to transfer to a distant elementary school. However, no sidewalks are provided in
the school zone.
Prior to introduction of the system, we conducted a utilization survey to grasp the degree of road utilization
and a hearing investigation to share users’ views (see Table 1).
Type of survey

Period of survey

Survey method

Usage survey

2005/11/18 6:30AM to 9:00AM, 4:Behavior survey

・ utilization of sidewalk

00PM to 9:00PM
Attitude survey

Main survey items
・user count2005/12/16 6:00AM to 3:00PMHearing

・frequency of use
・purpose of use
・frightening experience・ sense of insecurity
Table１ Survey schedule and survey items

Figure 2 geographic areas
The utilization survey found 4 pedestrians and 41 cars.
The hearing investigation was conducted on 149 drivers and 30 pedestrians/cyclists. As a result, we learned
that nearly half of the road users had a frightening experience. We also found out the fact that about 60% of
the drivers felt unsafe and anxious while passing by a pedestrian or a cyclist.

3 SYSTEM OVERVIEW
The challenge facing the traditional delivery system of pedestrian information was the detection ofunspecified pedestrians.
We developed the system to be installed particularly in the school zone of the intermediate and mountainous
area, so the pedestrians are specified to school children. Thus, we requested those who regularly walk or ridea bicycle in the school zone to carry a RFID tag. As soon as the reader installed on the roadside receives thesignals from the RFID tag, the information board indicates pedestrian information to warn. Additionally, thelight-emitting markers set up on the border with the traffic lane flash on and off to alert drivers.
Figure 3 is the overview of the whole system. The main devices that compose of the apparatus are outlined
below.

Figure 3 the overview of the whole system
3-1 RFID tag
Generally, imaging sensor is used to detect a pedestrian. However, the apparatus is expensive, and it needssome improvement in terms of accuracy. The pedestrians and cyclists to be detected are mostly specified toschool children in the area where the system we developed is introduced. Thus, we chose the option of
detecting the pedestrians/cyclists carrying a RFID tag.
Pedestrians carry a RFID tag of active type, and the reader installed on the roadside receives transmittedsignals. The RFID tag carried by a pedestrian is shaped like a key ring, and it is compact. It incorporates abutton battery inside. The signals from this RFID tag reach around 10m. Furthermore, 2 antennas covering
different areas of detection are installed in order to improve accuracy of data the reader receives.

ReaderTag

Figure 4 RFID tags and Reader

3-2 Information board
We can alert drivers either by sending information to the on-board unit via VICS and roadside radio, or by
the information board set up on the roadside. Employment of VICS is not feasible because the prefecture
does not meet a precondition for it: a car navigation system, which is not very common in the prefecture, has
to be installed in each car. Utilizing roadside radio is not adequate, either for our purpose since it requires
reception status of the radio. Hence, we found it most appropriate to choose the method of alerting drivers byindicating the existence of a pedestrian on the information board set up on the roadside.
It is desirable that the information board be easily understandable for drivers. On the other hand, thecharacter size of a LED display board greatly affects its cost and visibility. After conducting a comprehensive
deliberation with the current local situation in mind, we decided to choose the character height of 20cm
which enables drivers to recognize the alert from 50m away when driving at 50km per hour. As for its color,
we picked white, which is used as default standard in other regional ITS.
3-3 Light-emitting marks
Light-emitting marks were implanted on the road along the lane edge for the purpose of showing drivers theborder between the traffic lane and the sidewalk, and eventually assuring safe space for pedestrians. The
light-emitting marks are of LED type, and they make themselves more visible by flashing rapidly. Moreover,the marks incorporate a sensor which doubles the speed of flashing upon detecting automotive headlights. As
the emission color, a few options were considered such as red, yellow, or white. We chose white, the default
standard in other regional ITS, on the grounds that Public Safety Commission has already been using red andyellow as the colors for regulatory signs.

4 CONCLUSION
Even in the intermediate and mountainous area, sidewalks have to be constructed in the school zone toensure the safety of people like children. However, construction in the populous urban area takes precedence
for the sake of cost effectiveness. This paper presents the system that provides drivers with pedestrian
information as the second best measure to infrastructure building in the intermediate and mountainous area
where pedestrians can be specified. As a next step, we would like to evaluate the effectiveness of theinstalled prototype and make the system even better.
Regional ITS is introduced for the purpose of assuring the safety of road users and improving convenience.
Meeting the needs of community, regional ITS is a community-based effort. We believe that regional ITS
provides “service of high quality at low cost” by effectively utilizing IT technology in order to faceregion-specific challenges in the field of road traffic.
Spreading and promoting of the system we developed will certainly be an effective way of assuring thesafety of pedestrians in the intermediate and mountainous area. We, Kochi prefecture, would like to actively
present the system to the local governments throughout Japan that face the similar road problem.

REFERENCES
1) H. Miyamoto, K. OKAMURA, H. KITAGAWA, Y. KUMAGAI (2005) “The Development of a Narrow
Road Driving Support System”, Proceedings 12th World Congress on ITS