著者

北島 修

出版者

人文地理学会

雑誌

人文地理 (ISSN:00187216)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.37, no.2, pp.167-182, 1985

被引用文献数

1 1

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The aim of this paper is to examine transport service as one of the transport conditions which are factors in the choice of means of transport and of traffic flows, from a geographical point of view.By dealing with a coefficent of the transport service of air lines and an accessibility of airports, the author clarifies regional differences in transport service and their changes from 1970 to 1982 in Japan's domestic air transport.Flight time, fare, and the number of flights are used as indices of transport service.The conclusions derived from this study are as follows:As for transport service of lines, the gap between main lines and local lines is as great as before with a few exceptions such as the Osaka-Kochi line and the Osaka-Tokushima line. Expressed regionally, it is clear that the level of transport service is high in western Japan, and low in eastern Japan.As for changes of transport service from 1970 to 1982, the lines with a high growth rate of transport service are also concentrated in western Japan.Tokyo and Osaka are the most important airports in domestic air transport. But a striking contrast can be found between the lines from Osaka and those from Tokyo. That is to say, the growth rate of"Beam lines"from Tokyo is mostly high, while that from Osaka is low or negative.Of these three indices of transport service, an increase and decrease in the number of flights is the most important factor affecting the growth rate of the transport-service coefficient. The shortening of flight time by jet planes is as secondary factor. Although great utility of the shortening of flight time can be seen in the lines where jet planes started flying between 1970 and 1982, flight time has not shortened on other lines. It can be said that shortening of flight time by jet planes has reached its limit.As for accessibility of airports, in spite of progress in expanding infrastructure at local airports, there is an evident gap between local airports and main airports such as Tokyo, Osaka, Sapporo, and Fukuoka. Expressed regionally, accessibility of airports in western Japan is mainly higher than accessibility of airports in eastern Japan.But a different regionality appears in the change of accessibility. Although the growth rate of the main airports remains low, the airports in eastern Japan and in the districts facing the Japan Sea, such as Asahikawa, Memanbetsu, Kushiro, Komatsu, Toyama, and Aomori, show a high growth rate.By opening new lines and by increasing the number of flights, many of these airports with a high growth rate of accessibility are strengthening linkages with the principal airports on both the main and local lines.Shortening of flight time by jet planes is not necessarily an important factor in terms of the growth rate of accessibility.