Chuo-Dori, the Main Street of Nagano, runs north to Zenkoji temple from near JR Nagano Station. This tour shows only the section north of Showa-Dori, where the vehicular road has been narrowed, and the pedestrian infrastructure has been upgraded. This street is a quasi-S.L.O.W. street; it shares most of the characteristic physical qualities, but has traffic in both directions. It has many parallels to State … Continue reading Benches of Nagano: Chuo Street
The incredible density of woonerfs / narrow streets is off the charts. Continue reading Kanzakigawa Station & Mitsuya Arcade
Hankyu Juso Station (阪急十三駅), just 3 minutes from Umeda, is a commercial node with covered shopping arcades extending directly from both west and east exit. This post will focus on the west side of the station. Continue reading Juso Station & Arcades
Keep an eye out for these key S.L.O.W. features:
– Absence of parking lanes.
– Frequently spaced trees and/or stone bollards.
– Curbless #SuperFlat facade-to-facade pavement. Continue reading Nara’s Sanjo SLOW Street
[ the original version is available here ] The transportation structure of Japanese cities can be decomposed into pedestrian and vehicular networks. In some places they run side-by-side, in other places they overlap, but for the most part, they are completely separate. Organizing the hierarchy in order of pedestrian volume, from greatest to least: Note that vehicular flow is high only in the middle ranks of … Continue reading Hierarchy of Japanese Streets (Version 2)
There is a widespread assumption that urban transit should develop incrementally, progressing from bus to light rail to heavy rail, with the success of each mode justifying the viability of the next. – This model of development is ahistorical, if not revisionist. We know that historically profitable rail transit thrived long before buses arrived on the scene. Moreover, there are essentially zero documented cases of … Continue reading The Ahistorical Vision of “Bus Before Rail”
While the population of Tokyo as a whole is growing quite slowly, some parts of the city are experiencing change at a dizzying pace. This phenomenon is most visible in the massive construction projects at Shibuya, Shinagawa, and Tokyo Station. In contrast to Tokyo’s slow and steady population growth, the following numbers (for stations on Tokyo Metro) are really quite massive. Station Name: 2012 Ridership -> 2015 … Continue reading Explosive Ridership Growth on Tokyo Metro
(Daily boardings in 2015 unless otherwise stated) Shinjuku 総合駅: ~1.67 million JR: 760,043 Keio: ~379,000 (757,823 on & off) Odakyu: ~246,000 (492,234 on & off) Toei Shinjuku Line: 140,967 Tokyo Metro: ~ 116,000 (231,340 on & off) Toei Oedo Line: 30,466 Ikebukuro 総合駅: ~1.31 million “1966年に新宿駅に抜かれるまで、当駅が1日平均乗車人員数で日本一だった” JR: 556,780 Tokyo Metro: ~274,000 (548,839 on & off) Seibu: ~242,000 (483,407 on & off) Tobu: ~239,000 (477,834 on & off) Shibuya 総合駅: ~1.22 million … Continue reading How Busy Are Tokyo Rail Hubs?
This list is not comprehensive, but here are some of the largest Deck Level developments in Japan: Senri-Chuo shopping center in Osaka (on airport monorail line): huge deck level. Surrounding park areas are connected by pedestrian bridges, creating near total grade separation of vehicles and pedestrians. Very much like Tama Center. See also: http://senri50.com/c4489.html Tama Center: Wide deck level stretching 1100′ NW from Keio Tama Center … Continue reading Major Sky-Level Decks #デッキ論
Jiyugaoka is one of five major town centers in Tokyo’s Meguro ward (目黒区), which is one of the city’s most densely populated wards, with 49,000 people per square mile. The two train stations which intersect here boast combined daily boardings of approximately 150,000 passengers (CBRE data). This commercial nucleus features a tremendous number of storefronts, all within a 6 minute walk of Jiyugaoka Station: … Continue reading Walkable City – Jiyugaoka (自由が丘)
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