Development of Multi-Agent Simulation Model for Evacuation from Landslide Disaster Area

Japan is a country which has many steep slopes along rivers. Therefore, the disasters due to landslide and mud flood have often occurred in mountainous urbanized areas. In rainy or typhoon season much rain triggers such disasters because of unusual rainfall. In these years those disasters have been increased in not only mountainous areas but also the housing area developed in the fringe of urban region newly. On the other hand, some of the nursing homes for aging people located in such disaster estimated areas. The people have also fallen victim to landslide disasters. So it has been important for a local government to build a comprehensive evacuation program of a large natural disaster. In this program, it is substantial to give appropriate information on human behavior for the evacuating time. In this study a new methodology based on behavior-oriented agent system should be discussed to develop. The production roles of the attributive groups were built in terms of the questionnaire survey on evacuation trips from damaged districts. Using the set of production rules composed of the questionnaire data, a multi-agent simulation model in a hypothetical landslide disaster was developed by a multi-agent system (MAS) method. An agent in this study is the person that can perceive its environment through sensors and decide the activities due to effectors. The multi-agent system was simulated in terms of evacuation from a damaged district to a safe shelter in Sapporo, Japan. It comes to the conclusion that the human behaviors and their interactions during the disaster impact were constructed by multi-agent simulation model and the possibility of the evacuation was found in view of both topographic and human attributive conditions

Application of Analytic Hierarchy Process on Preferable Speed Limit for Logistics Company: A Case Study on Hokkaido Roads

Recently, National Police Agency of Japan has announced a plan to revise a speed limit regulation. Numbers of research have been done to determine an appropriate speed limit, but none of them have taken an analysis by Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) into account. AHP can help to reveal the road users’ viewpoints. Therefore, this research proposes the application of AHP to determine the preferable speed limit on Hokkaido roads for logistics-based businesses. Herein, safety, driving comfort and travel time were used as AHP criteria. A verification of AHP with our previous speed limit studies was also accomplished. The results showed that safety was the most important criterion, followed by travel time and driving comfort, respectively. In conclusion, according to the road and traffic conditions, we implied that these preferable speed limits are appropriate for Hokkaido roads. So it could be a guideline to set the new limits for Hokkaido roads. Furthermore, AHP is proposed to be an effective tool to determine these appropriate speed limits

Optimal Winter Speed Limit

This study aims to determine the optimal winter speed limit through the application of a cost analysis and by analysis of effects of road and traffic conditions. Initially, a cost analysis of travel time costs, vehicle operating costs, pollution costs, and accident cost was applied to determine optimal average speed on the basis of the minimum total cost. Then, the effects of road and traffic conditions were calculated by regression analysis. Finally, the optimal winter speed limits were achieved. In conclusion, we found that our model was reliable and the results were appropriate and sustainable for the long term

Effects of Cellular Telephone Use While Driving Based on Objective and Subjective Mental Workload Assessment

A series of studies were performed to investigate the effects of cellulartelephone use while driving on driver mental workload. In these surveillance studiesobjective and subjective methods were used to find the driver mental workloadbehaviour. In the first study, the results indicated that the hands-free system providedless effect on the driver’s mental workload than the hand-held system. In the secondstudy, experience in using a cellular telephone while driving had no positive effect onreaction time. The operation task and talking task had little effect on the subjectivemental workload of the experienced subjects, but had statistically significant effectson the subjective mental workload of the non-experienced subjects. In the third study,the results of experiment indicated that the telephone tasks increase the mentalworkload of the drivers as were shown in the second study. The results also indicatedthat the complex conversation task produced an increase in driver mental workload ascompared to the simple conversation task and the other tasks independent of agegroup

Optimal Winter Speed Limit

This study aims to determine the optimal winter speed limit through the application of a cost analysis and by analysis of effects of road and traffic conditions. Initially, a cost analysis of travel time costs, vehicle operating costs, pollution costs, and accident cost was applied to determine optimal average speed on the basis of the minimum total cost. Then, the effects of road and traffic conditions were calculated by regression analysis. Finally, the optimal winter speed limits were achieved. In conclusion, we found that our model was reliable and the results were appropriate and sustainable for the long term