They Did It(?) - The Sustainable City in The United Arab Emirates

Hachioji-Commuting in “Metropolis” Tokyo

            Nestled about an hour away from central Tokyo, Japan, rests Hachioji City. Home to around 579 thousand residents (Populations,2), many being students or the elderly, Hachioji City is a nice escape from the crowded center of Tokyo. Having lived there for five months for my study abroad program, I became aware of many developmental advances and flaws in the city; Both were rooted in transportation.

Getting somewhere from Hachioji is no problem at all. Even where I was located, about thirty minutes from the subway station, a bus always came-albeit late- to one of two bus stops by my dorm every fifteen minutes. From five am to eleven pm, buses make the excursion to the two subway stations in the city, located only three minutes away from each other. From the stations, there are connections to local and central Tokyo lines, as well as Shinkansen (Bullet trains) and highway buses to different regions of Japan. There’s even an airport shuttle!

JR Hachioji Station		05:15	07:15	12:05	14:05	19:05
Narita Airport Terminal 2		07:20	09:45	14:30	16:30	21:30
Narita Airport Terminal 1		07:25	09:50	14:35	16:35	21:35
Narita Airport Terminal 3		07:30	09:55	14:40	16:40	21:40

·      Pictured above: timetable for Narita Airport Shuttle source:https://www.limousinebus.co.jp/en/platform_searches/index/1/106

 At a glance, it would seem that Hachioji has a relatively well-oiled transportation system, and it does, yet only partially. Getting to places is not the problem, it’s getting back to Hachioji city, or worse, getting back to the outskirts from the station; That's where the cracks start to show.

            Picture this: You’re out with friends at an Izakaya by the station, and it’s 1am. You want to go home, unfortunately the last bus left an hour and a half ago. Now you have three options: Pay the expensive taxi fee-From the station to my dorm it was around 25 dollars, for three miles! - walk home, or wait for the 6am bus.-While the bus route started going to the station at 5am, it did not start transporting from the station until 6-. This was a weekly scenario, and most of the time we walked. There are a number of problems at fault here: Because of rising gas prices and the lack of customers, taxi drivers in Japan have no choice but to increase their prices. In addition, no one wants to be driving a bus in the middle of the night.

The biggest problem for me was not the fact that I was walking three miles at one in the morning; It was the fact that Hachioji is a somewhat dangerous place. Signs at the entrances of forests warned individuals to call 119(the Japanese emergency number) in case they ran into any Chikan, a Japanese term for pervert. My school provided every female student with handheld alarms in case of emergencies, and female dorms had curfews for safety. All-in-all, one should not be walking alone in the middle of the night.

·      Pictured above: Sign urging individuals to call the police if they run in to perverts in the forest. Hachioji, Tokyo. Source: photographed by me

For these reasons, there are a few solutions I came up with. The first solution is the most obvious, being having buses run all night, or at least later than 11:30 pm. While this is not the perfect solution, as it requires more individuals to work throughout the night, it ensures less people are stranded and left to walk home. As opposed to simply hiring overnight bus-drivers, another solution would be to have well-lit sidewalks, something that Japan, Hachioji in particular is seriously lacking. Similar to the case of Khyleshia, I also believe look-out towers with safety buildings could help individuals who found themselves without transportation for the night a bit less in fear of the unknown. A final solution would be to introduce Uber or Lift to Japan, which would be slightly more cost-effective than the traditional Japanese taxi. This would, however, make it even harder for traditional taxi drivers in Japan to get customers, but for those who prefer luxury, they still may have a fighting chance.

            Ultimately, Japan, Hachioji in particular doesn’t have bad transportation during the day, it just becomes somewhat of a nightmare once the clock strikes eleven. With a few changes, however, I believe Hachioji’s transportation issues could be a thing of the past.

Bibliography

“JR Hachioji Station.” JR Hachioji Station｜Routes,Timetables,Fares｜Airport Limousine Bus, www.limousinebus.co.jp/en/platform_searches/index/1/106.

“Populations of Cities in Japan(2018).” Population of Cities in Japan (2018), worldpopulationreview.com/countries/japan-population/cities/.