Fostering partnerships towards sustainable urban mobility from the national to local level: Matsuyama,Japan and Yogyakarta,Indonesia

This paper analyzes the implementation of Japan's and Indonesia's national frameworks aiming to promote sustainable urban mobility by placing transport policy coordination as pre-requisites under the decentralization regime. It takes two cities, Matsuyama and Yogyakarta, as the case studies. The analytical framework developed here highlights multi-level government coordination, coordination among local stakeholders, and regulator–operator coordination. The analysis is based on policy documents review, field observation, hearing and a questionnaire survey. The study shows some good practices as well as drawbacks of the schemes and produces lessons-learned from Japan's ‘omnibus town scheme’ to improve Indonesia's public transport program and for other cities in developing countries.     

Field operational tests of Smartway in Japan

Efforts are underway in Japan to promote “Smartway” next-generation roadways, which provide a variety of services through the use of advanced ITS technologies. In recent years, the National Institute for Land and Infrastructure Management (NILIM), part of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT), has conducted public-private joint research on next-generation road services using ITS technologies. Field operational tests (FOTs) of services including forward obstacle information provision and merging assistance using 5.8 GHz dedicated short range communication (DSRC) were conducted on the Tokyo Metropolitan Expressway through FY2007. In FY2008-2009, FOTs were conducted in three major metropolitan areas—Tokyo, Nagoya, and Keihanshin (Kyoto, Osaka, and Kobe)—to promote future deployment nationwide. These included tests of information provision services to alert drivers to forward obstacles hidden beyond the crest of an incline and prevent excessive speed on sharp curves. This paper presents an overview of these FOTs conducted by NILIM in recent years and their results.