Silviase/jgov_v1.4_full_ann huggingface dataset:
This caused the ratio of drivers using the expressway and drivers using the bypass to change, with a rise in the number of drivers using the expressway and an alleviation of traffic congestion on the Shinomiya bypass (Figure 2-1-4).

By being more flexible with the use of the toll-charging system in this way, we can increase the utilization rate of the infrastructure, as well as decrease the societal loss caused by traffic jams, making it possible to use the infrastructure wisely.

Source) MLIT: Social Infrastructure Development Council, Roads Subcommittee's 5th Land & Highway Panel (February 2013)

# Use of Toll-charging System Overseas

## The London Example

Other cities overseas are working on controlling the amount of traffic by road pricing, and London is one such example. In London, in order to alleviate the traffic congestion in the downtown area, in February 2003, a road pricing system was implemented wherein all vehicles passing through certain areas between 7:00 – 18:30 on a weekday paid a GBP £5 /day toll $ ^{Note 1} $ (Figure 2-1-5). The toll could be paid online or via phone cameras that automatically read the license plates were set up around the toll-charging areas to check that only vehicles that had paid the toll were driving through these areas.

Since the implementation of road pricing, vehicles that entered toll-charging areas decreased by 18%, vehicles driving through the toll-charging areas decreased by 15%, and traffic congestion was decreased by 30%. At the same time, the number of public transport users increased, leading to an increase in the number of buses running by 23%, and decreasing the percentage of delay in the bus arrival times by 60%.

In addition to the impact on the amount of traffic, Transport for London is also measuring the benefits and the cost of implementing road pricing in terms of market value. The impact was measured by separating the impact on each entity (ex: toll implementation, etc.) and the societal impact (ex: decrease in traffic congestion) and calculating the costs and benefits for each aspect. The results showed that the overall societal benefit totalled over GBP71 million more than the cost, showing that the implementation of road pricing system had a desirable impact on society as a whole (Figure 2-1).

Source) Developed by MLIT from "Impacts Monitoring Second Annual Report" (2004) by Transport for London
·Transport for London “Central London Congestion Charging Scheme” (2007)

·Road Traffic Technology website http://www.roadtraffic-technology.com/projects/stockholm-congestion/stockholmcongestion3.html

·Swedish Transport Agency website

http://www.transportstyrelsen.se/en/road/Congestion-tax/Congestion-tax-in-stockholm/How-do-control-points-work1/

·Maria Bör jesson, Jon as Eliasson, Muriel Hugosson, Karin Brundell-Freij “The Stockholm congestion charges – five years on. Effects, acceptability and lessons learnt” Royal Institute of Technology

Figure 2-1-7 Toll Collection Point

Figure 2-1-8 Image of Toll Collection

Source) Swedish Transport Agency information

Source) Developed by MLIT from Road Traffic Technology information

Figure 2-1-9 Average Number of Vehicles that Pass Through Toll Collection Points between 6:00-19:00 on a Weekday in One Week

Source) Developed by MLIT from 'The Stockholm congestion charges - lessons after 5 years' by Maria Börjesson, Jonas Eliasson, Muriel Hugosson, Karin Brundell-Freij, Professor Transport Systems Analysis, Royal Institute of Technology
(2) Devising a Structure for Selecting the Most Efficient Supply and Usage Agents for Social Infrastructure

By using the market mechanism, we are able to supply services that have the characteristics of social infrastructure as efficiently as possible, and select ideas and agents that make the best use of social infrastructure. In this section we will introduce some of the related efforts being undertaken both nationally and overseas.

## (Examples from Overseas)

From abroad, we have the example of having a structure that incorporates an auction-like system to choose companies that can most efficiently use the infrastructure to supply services.

## PSO in the EU

In the EU, having airlines that connect remote areas and islands to the wider transportation network is recognized as a service to be provided as the national minimum. The auction-style system is used to issue business licenses and subsidies for providing these transportation lines, which tend to operate at a deficit.

In EU member states, when airlines that connect remote islands are lifelines that are not provided on a commercial basis, that transport line is recognized as being designated a Public Service Obligations (PSO) $ ^{Note\ 23} $ (Figure 2-1-10).

When a transport line is designated as a PSO route, any airline licensed in the EU can operate the route under the specified service conditions. However, if there is no airline that voluntarily decides to operate the route, there is a public tender for entering into the operation of the route. In other words, the government that designated the PSO transport line will establish the criteria in regards to the frequency of flights, type of aircraft, timetables, fare prices, etc., and each bidder must submit an operation plan that meets the criteria, along with the amount of subsidy necessary $ ^{Note\ 24} $ (Figure 2-1-11). Details regarding the system for selecting the flight operator is left to the national government to determine, but in regards to the presentation of subsidies, the system is the same within all of EU. Once an airline company has been selected as the operator for the said transport line, that airline is designated as the sole operator for that route during the contract period.

Source) 'Transportation Policy Council Aviation Subcommittee Basic Policy Group Interim Report, Reference Materials' by MLIT

Figure 2-1-11 Minimum Service Level for PSO Transport Lines

Country name	Minimum number of flights operated	Minimum capacity	Minimum aircraft size	Timetable requirements	Maximum one-way fare
France	○	×	○	○	×
Germany	○	▲	○	○	○
Ireland	○	○	○	○	○
Italy	○	○	○	○	○
Portugal	○	○	×	○	○
Spain	▲	○	×	▲	○
Sweden	○	○	×	×	×
UK	○	×	○	×	○
Iceland	○	×	○	○	○
Norway	○	○	○	○	○
Note) ○ = Set for all transport lines ▲ = Set for some transport lines × = Not set
Place of origin: Prepared based on European Commission, Official Journal of European Community
## (National Measures)

Japan has also in recent years started using a more competition based process in order to select implementation entities that have exceptional ideas and abilities, to help improve the use of the current social infrastructures.

## I ntroducing the Bidding System to Occupation of Roads

The road sector has decided that a system with auction-like characteristics would be introduced for selecting road space users for road space available in places such as under elevated railway structures. Formerly, because the main purpose of roads was for general traffic, permission for occupation of road space for a specific purpose would be granted only if there was no space outside the road space to install property. In actuality, when we look at the percentages of the types of industries occupying such spaces for revenue, the majority of the space is occupied by conduits necessary for utility companies, with only a small percentage occupied by commercial businesses (Figure 2-1-16).

Meanwhile, with the acceleration in population decline and aging, there is a growing demand for urban functions to be consolidated. Considering the matter from a local revitalization and urban development perspective, we can assume that there will be an increase in entities such as stores applying for road occupancy permissions. In such cases, we must consider selecting principal occupants that—in addition to the previous criteria of outlines such as business maintenance ability and business hours—will be able to generate the greatest amount of occupancy revenue.

From this line of thinking, the occupancy standards for road space under elevated structures was mitigated, and the ‘Act for Partial Revision of the Road Law’ was established in May 2014 to implement a system that ensured that—depending on the occupying entity selected—out of all bid participants that satisfied the standards, the bidder that bid the highest amount of occupancy revenue would win.
## ☑ Adding Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Functions to Social Infrastructure

As seen in the previous section’s examples regarding Michi-no-Eki, social infrastructures are expected to have the capabilities of functioning as a base during emergency or disaster. With a slight enhancement in such social infrastructures however, and by improving their operations, it would be possible to add the function of disaster prevention and mitigation.

The Miyagi prefecture, in cooperation with MLIT, took the road that functioned as both the bypass National Highway No.346 and the second-line dike (the second embankment built parallel to the first one along the river bank to minimize the damage caused by floodwater in the event of the river flooding) and merged the construction of a 5m high embankment structure with said road and opened it for service in May 2013 (Figure 2-1-20). This not only helps with traffic safety and congestion mitigation on the National Highway No.346, if either the Naruse River, which flows around the peripheral, or the Yoshida River were to overflow, the 860 residences and buildings like the Kashimadai General Branch Office and the General Hospital within the second-line dike—approximately 230ha of surface area—would be protected from flooding.

In another example, the overpasses and elevated bridges in Himeji City, Hyogo, have been designated as tsunami shelter areas.

The information is published on websites and on local disaster

prevention maps created by the voluntary disaster prevention organization, to make sure that information is well-known by the local residents. This way, in the event of an emergency or disaster, the elevated roads and bridges can be used as disaster prevention and mitigation functions.

These are just some examples of ways in which ingenuity and creativity in development and operation can add disaster prevention and mitigation functions to social infrastructures, in addition to its original purposes. Going forward, we need to consider how social infrastructure can be used from the angle of disaster prevention and mitigation, in addition to the original function.
## Turning Freight Lines into Passenger Lines

Previously, most of Japan’s freight transport over land was by railway, and in areas like the coastal industrial zones, we laid dedicated railway tracks to be used only by freight trains. Since then, because of the rise in population in the metropolitan areas, residential areas have spread along areas with freight lines. With this in mind, to make effective use of existing stock to ensure that local commuters have efficient transportation, and to improve and revitalize these urban area functions, the existing freight lines have been converted to double tracks and quadruple tracks to allow these railway lines to be used both as freight lines and as passenger lines, ‘turning freight lines into passenger lines.’

The Osaka Soto-Kanjo Railway (East Osaka Line) is moving forward in making the Joto freight line in the Osaka city extension section into double track, electrified lines to turn it into a passenger line. By streamlining this line, each of the JR, private, and subway railway lines that radiate out of the city center in the eastern region of Osaka will form a network, which in turn should significantly reduce the amount of time it takes to travel to the Osaka city center, greatly improving the convenience of using these lines (Figure 2-1-21, Figure 2-1-22).

The railway line running from Kyuhoji to Hanaten was opened for operation in 2008, and currently there is construction work happening on the railway line running from Hanaten to Shinosaka to convert the line into a passenger line. The work is scheduled to be completed and the line opened for operation by spring of 2018 $ ^{Note\ 29} $ .

## ☑ Installing Solar Panels on Public Facilities

Solar power is a power generation system that uses things like solar batteries to convert direct sunlight into electricity. Nationally, the amount of power generated by this method has increased rapidly, to approximately 80% more over the last 10 years. In recent years, in addition to solar power systems being used in residential homes, more and more industrial and public facilities are using solar power.

For example, New Kansai International Airport Company, Ltd. and SF Solar Power, Ltd. $ ^{Note\ 30} $ built Asia’s largest airport solar power generation facility (KIX Mega Solar) within Kansai International Airport, which has been operational since February 2014 (Figure 2-1-23)

East Osaka Line Route Map

Source) Osaka Soto-Kanjo Railway Co., Ltd

Figure 2-1-22

Impact of Streamlining

Route	Before streamlining	After streamlining	Time reduced
Kyuhoji - Takaida-Chuo	36min	14 min	$ \triangle22 $ min
Kyuhoji - Awaji	40min	19min	$ \triangle21 $ min
Hanaten - Shin-Osaka	27min	11min	$ \triangle16 $ min

Source) MLIT

Figure 2-1-23

KIX Mega Solar

Source) Solar Frontier K.K.

SF Kansai Mega Solar leased land along the planned site for the south taxiway expansion for Runway B (approx. 96,700 square meters) and the rooftop area of the cargo shed (approx. 23,000 square meters) to install the KIX Mega
Solar. By utilizing the feed-in tariff of renewable energy to operate the power generation business, the expected annual amount of power output for the first year is approximately 12 million kWh, which equals to about 7% of the total amount of power used by Kansai International Airport.

In another case, sewage facilities in 41 locations nationwide have installed solar power generators by utilizing the space above the facilities. For example, in April 2010, the Kasai Water Reclamation Center in Edogawa Ward, Tokyo, have installed a solar panel consisting of 3,836 panels pieced together, which has generated approximately 620,000 kWh (FY 2012) of power annually (Figure 2-1-24). This amounts to approximately 5% of the total energy consumed during daytime hours.

Kasai Water Reclamation Center's Solar Power Generation System

Source) City of Tokyo

Going forward, we expect that more such existing facilities will use their rooftop spaces to install solar panels.

## ■ Opening Up Public Spaces

Some local governments are using road space and river space to offset the costs for things like road maintenance and management, and to help bring a little more lively to the city.

For road spaces, the space requirements $ ^{Note\ 31} $ were relaxed in areas specified by road administrators within the urban renewal development plan. For example, in the Odori district in Sapporo, Hokkaido, they used results from previous social experiments to start outdoor cafés and billboard businesses, and then passed on the profits from these businesses to

be used for community development, such as road maintenance and regional events (Figure 2-1-25). The 'Keyaki Namiki' (Zelkova tree-lined Pathway), part of the Grand Front Osaka, which opened for business in Osaka in April 2013, is an 11 meter wide walkway decorated with natural stone pavement. Using the roadside space, an outdoor café was opened to bring in more foot traffic along the boulevard (Figure 2-1-26).

Source) MLIT

Figure 2-1-26

Example from Grand Front Osaka (April 2013, opening of an outdoor café)

Source) Developed by MLIT from Grand Front Osaka website

Note 31 Requirement that the occupation of the space is unavoidable due to lack of space outside the premises of the road.
of a bygone era (Figure 2-1-29).

The lookout facility is adjacent to the platform of JR San’in Main Line’s Amarube station, and you can view the Sea of Japan from a height of 40 meters above ground level. Also, right next to the Michi-no-Eki ‘Amarube,’ there is a park facility being installed in the area under the lookout point that is taking advantage of the historic structures for revitalizing the region.

Source) Hyogo Prefecture website

## ☑ Using the Defunct Railroad Track – Rail Mountain Bike ‘Gattan Go!!’

In Kamioka Town, Hida City, Gifu Prefecture, the idea of a 'Rail Mountain Bike' was proposed when they were considering how the assets of the disused Kamioka railway lines could be used to benefit the region.

The rail mountain bike—the like of which cannot be found anywhere else in Japan $ ^{Note 32} $ —is a contraption with two mountain bikes fixed on either side of the railway track by a special frame so that two people can pedal the bicycles to go forward (Figure 2-1-30). Since the bicycles run on railway tracks, the cyclists can hear and experience the distinctive “click-clack” sound and vibration of wheels going over the seams of the train tracks. The tracks, tunnels, and overpasses along the bicycle course are just as they were before the railway line fell into disuse, so that cyclist can enjoy the same view they would have seen from the train.

From its inception in FY2007 to FY2010, the rail mountain bikes only operated during holidays, as a sort of special event, but since 2011 the rail mountain bikes have been open seasonally (April to November), operating every Saturdays and Sundays during the season, and in 2012 open times on weekdays were also added. With the number of customers increasing to more than 20,000 people annually, not only has this attraction been in the black as a standalone business, it has drawn more holiday makers to the Hida region, having a great economic ripple effect on the region’s tourism industry (Figure 2-1-31). At the beginning, this venture was run by the Tourism Association, but was then transferred to the non-profit organization Kamioka Town Network, which currently operates the business. Presently, only 15% of the length (2.9km) of the old Kamioka Railway is being used, but they are hoping to

Source) NPO Kamioka Town Network

Source) Developed by MLIT from information from NPO Kamioka Town Network
extend the operation to cover the entire length of the railway line in the future (19.9km).

As an example of an undertaking that has become a new tourism resource, this idea—which originated from the sentiments of the local community which saw the old Kamioka railway line as a symbol of the train line that once supported this mining town—is now drawing a lot of attention from other local governments and organizations from rural regions all over the country that also have old railway tracks that have fallen to disuse.

(Effective Utilization from Relocation)

The Kasumi Bridge, which spans the Shinyamashita Canal in Yokohama, had some re-construction work done due to the aging of the structure, and re-opened for traffic in March 2013 as the new Kasumi Bridge. The structure used for the reconstructive work was the Pratt truss, which had originally been built in 1896 as a viaduct over Sumida River for the Joban Line to run on, then relocated in 1929 to the Egasaki overpass bridge in the Tsurumi district to be re-used $ ^{Note\ 33} $ (Figure 2-1-32).

In 1896, the year in which the bridge was constructed in 1896, it was the first double-track type Pratt truss in Japan, and had several foreign companies competing to design the bridge. In the end, they used the design by a company called Handyside, from the UK. At the time, it was the most advanced bridge, being the most large-scale, steel railway bridge, with a design that was very different from the style of that era.

In 1928, 32 years after the bridge was built, it had to be removed as it had not been built to withstand the increased load of a locomotive. It was transferred to be a bridge connecting the area divided by the opening of the Shintsurumi switchyard, and was completed as the old Egasaki overpass bridge in 1929. However, with the continued aging of the structure and the fact that the road width was quite narrow, it was decided in 2005 that a new bridge needed to be built, and so the original was finally dismantled in 2009.

Since the Pratt truss was of high historical value in terms of being a heritage of modern civil engineering—having been featured in selections such as, “Top 100 Bridges in Kanagawa,” “Top 100 Iron Bridges,” and “Modern Civil Engineering Heritage of Japan”—parts of the bridge that bore very little damage were put to another use, being re-

Source) Yokohama City

used to construct the Kasumi Bridge, which was being re-constructed around the same time $ ^{34} $ .

As evident from this example, even infrastructure that seems to be at the end of its service life can pass on valuable civil engineering heritage to future generations in this way, and be a way of re-using infrastructure.

We can expect that there will be more of these cases in the future, where the original purpose for an infrastructure may be finished, but the structure itself has the potential to be re-used. Consideration for how easily something can be re-used or converted for another purpose will become more relevant in the future developments of social infrastructures.
## (3) Innovation for Effective Utilizataion

One of the ways to make the operations of social infrastructures more efficient is innovation. Innovation has a strong connotation of meaning some new technology, but here the definition will not be limited to mean technological innovation, but rather used as a broader definition that includes new efforts that have economic and social impact $ ^{Note 35} $ .

An innovation for effective use of an existing social infrastructure is the use of new technology such as IT and use of software technique. In reference to the former, implementing the use of new technology, it is possible to identify the cause of inefficiencies like congestion, and make operations more efficient. In reference to the latter, we can improve the operation of social infrastructure to be more efficient if we were to be creative in our use of software, instead of focusing merely on hardware development.

Below we will explore some concrete examples.

## (Improving Efficiency with New Technology)

## ☑ Installation of Area Navigation (RNAV, RNP AR)

Previously, the navigation method when operating an aircraft was to receive radio communications from a radio tower or other ground facilities, which was a more passive aviation method, making the flight route dependent on the location of ground facilities.

However, due to advances in navigation technology on the aircraft, flight course can now be flexibly reset based on signals from wireless facilities and other GPS systems, and flight routes are sequentially submitted (RNAV, RNP AR) (Figure 2-1-33). This technology allows an aircraft to find flight routes autonomously instead of being restricted by the location of ground facilities. This has resulted in several positive effects, such as improvement of service rate, shortening of flight path, reduction in fuel usage, and reduction in $ CO_{2} $ emissions.

For example, the RNP AR approach procedure $ ^{Note\ 36} $ of the Odate Noshiro Airport in Akita has shortened the flight route by 50km compared to the previous method of

Installation of Area Navigation (RNAV, RNP, AR)

navigation. In addition, if the required visual reference to continue approach to landing is not visible, there is a specified altitude (decision altitude) in the approach descent at which the aircraft is not allowed to land. With previous navigation methods the decision altitude was 944 feet (approx. 288m), while with RNAV and RNP AR the decision altitude is 300 feet (approx. 90m), making flights possible in more severe weather conditions.