Purpose: – The purpose of this paper is to examine the transportation organizational service provision and travel behavioral responses after the March 2011 disaster in North East Japan. This research aims to identify the areas for capacity building in transportation to support resilient built environments.Design/methodology/approach: – A case study approach was taken to examine the transportation organizational service provision in one of the most devastated communities after the 2011 Japanese earthquake and tsunami. Data on post-disaster transportation arrangements were collected from local newspapers, desk reviews of reports by transportation operators and the local council, semi-structured interviews with local council and community groups, and a residents’ questionnaire surveying travel behavior. Organizational responses were analyzed by: the pre-disaster phase, the emergency phase, the rebuilding (temporary settlement) phase and the recovery (permanent settlement) phase.Findings: – Transportation demand changes dramatically in the emergency phase. In the re-building phase, an efficient and effective provision of a transportation service is required. The recovery and pre-disaster phases are critical as these are the time to build capacity for resilience. Practical application of the land use and transportation planning process is recommended in forming a transportation master plan.Originality/value: – This research is the first attempt to analyze the transportation organizational responses after a disaster in four discrete temporal dimensions. The knowledge provided in the paper is derived from the examination of the transportation responses in a city after a major disaster. The findings are more generally applicable to any built environments that are aiming for resilience.

The analysis and evaluation of urban structure are important while considering sustainable urban policies. It is necessary to develop a method that can easily analyze the social dynamics that are the result of changes over time in urban transportation and land use. Therefore, by describing the relationships between various agents in urban areas as a network, it is possible to analyze them by focusing on their structures. However, since there are few existing studies on social dynamics using network-based methods, it is necessary to examine the validity and effectiveness of these methods. The purpose of this study is to examine the possibility of urban analysis and evaluation focusing on the network shape by describing the urban activities and modeling the dynamics with a multilayer network. In particular, we focus on household composition and individual facility access, examine what kind of interpretation is possible for network indicators, and mention the applicability of complex networks to urban analysis. The model was applied to a two-dimensional grid virtual city, and the household composition and individual facility accessibility were quantified using the centrality index.

To ensure children’s safe independent mobility on the road, they need to learn basic traffic rules. In this case, traffic rule education in a realistic environment through a play-way method can be a significant learning strategy. This research focuses on the “Traffic Park (TP)”, which provides that opportunity. Specifically, this research examined how elementary school children’s knowledge of traffic rules and behavioral intentions are influenced by their experiences of using and playing in a TP before and after they start school. Children from four different elementary schools (grades 1~6) were surveyed in Toyohashi City, Japan using a web-based questionnaire survey. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was applied to analyze the effect of TP use experience on children’s awareness of traffic rules and behavioral intentions. Three distinct SEM models were tested to measure the effect pattern of children’s TP use experience on their traffic rule awareness and behavioral intentions. The results show that TP use experience before entering school has a statistically significant effect on children’s traffic rule awareness (β = 0.16, p < 0.004; model 1) and behavioral intention improvement (β = 0.09, p < 0.07; model 2). However, TP use experience after entering school was found to have no significant effect. Finally, children’s TP use experience indirectly improves their behavioral intentions (β = 0.74, p < 0.001; model 3) by improving their awareness of traffic rules. Overall, the findings of this study highlight the contribution of TPs in promoting children’s safe independent mobility and fostering the development of sustainable child-friendly cities worldwide.

Evaluation of an individual’s accessibility to urban services is crucial for urban planners and policymakers to assess various urban policies and scenarios. Most studies have emphasized accessibility in physical spaces, with limited attention to the role of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in providing virtual access and its implications for quality of life (QOL) and sustainability. This study addresses this gap by examining the substitutability of physical activities with digital alternatives and their potential contribution to decarbonization. Using data from an online questionnaire survey in Japan, we analyze how individuals access services across both transportation and ICT networks. We propose an integrated evaluation framework that measures QOL by considering accessibility in both physical and virtual spaces. The analysis highlights differences in substitutability across activities such as shopping, working, schooling, and entertainment, while revealing that services like healthcare and physical tourism remain less substitutable. The results disclose that accessibility strongly influences individuals’ adoption of digital alternatives, which in turn offer significant benefits in terms of convenience and environmental impact. The proposed methodology provides valuable insights seeking to balance physical and virtual service accessibility, supporting sustainable urban development in line with UN Sustainable Development Goals 10 and 11.