Voluntary CO2 emissions reduction scheme: Analysis of airline voluntary plan in Japan

This paper discusses voluntary CO₂ emissions reduction schemes and, in particular focuses on the voluntary plan by the Japanese airline industry. Econometric analysis identifies statistically significant improvement of 3–4% in CO₂ emissions intensity (CO₂/RPK) subsequent to initiation of the voluntary plan in 1998.     

Demand for buses in Japanese medium sized cities

The number of bus passenger has been decreasing in Japan since 1969. The increase in car ownership and development in urban rapid rail network has deprived bus service of passengers. The bus industry has suffered from depression for the last twenty years. However, many bus routes are still operated commercially. The amount of external subsidies is not large. The industry is under strict regulation. The common way for bus operators has been to increase fares rapidly in order to keep their break even condition. The first half of the paper describes present circumstances of the bus industry in more details. Then the second half of the paper treats the estimation of the effect of each factor on bus demand by using pooled data in Japanese medium sized cities. The results suggest that the increase in car ownership has had a crucial effect on local public transport demand and is likely to continue to do so.     

New Control Technique for Maximizing Braking Force on Antilock Braking System

In this paper, we propose a new control strategy for an antilock braking system (ABS) to maintain the braking force at maximum. The popularization of the ABS that prevents the wheels from locking has resulted in an improvement of the vehicle stability and shortening of the braking distance. Further improvement is anticipated if the maximization of the braking force is realized. We found an interesting phenomenon in which the characteristics of the resonance system composed of the vehicle body and the wheel and road surface reflects the slip condition of the road surface. Using this phenomenon, we realized a control method for maintaining the maximum value of the braking force.