http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0002076117 New Japan, Old Japan / Easing the way for the elderly April 15, 2015 Ryuzo Suzuki / The Yomiuri Shimbun
[image / Ryuzo Suzuki / The Yomiuri Shimbun https://the-japan-news-archives.s3-ap-northeast-1.amazonaws.com/preview/entries/121610/materials/310351/DTMANAGE.000000020150409130848011-1.jpg?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAI7EPFDYX6SSPYKKQ&Expires=1429377816&Signature=mYX2mAZ%2FrymbT135agsOwX1A%2B1o%3D A bicycle-powered vehicle carrying passengers departs from the Murayama Danchi Chuo Shotengai shopping street for their homes in the Murayama Danchi residential complex in Musashimurayama, Tokyo. This is the second vehicle, which was jointly developed and manufactured by 11 companies in the city, including a metal-processing firm. The about ¥1.8 million cost was financed mainly by the city’s chamber of commerce and industry ] Murayama Danchi is a residential complex run by the Tokyo metropolitan government in Musashimurayama, western Tokyo. A total of 5,260 housing units were built over 55 hectares in the Murayama Danchi complex in 1966, to cope with the dire housing shortage during the nation’s rapid economic growth in the late 1950s to the early 1970s. It is still one of the largest residential complexes run by the metropolitan government, but due to the chronically low birthrate and graying society, the number of residents has fallen to about 7,800. More than 48 percent are aged 65 or older. An increasing number of residents have difficulty going shopping or are highly reluctant to go outside. Amid this grave situation, a free transportation service using bicycle-powered vehicles to take people to the shopping area was introduced in the Murayama Danchi Chuo Shotengai shopping street in the residential complex in 2009. The number of users has increased year by year, with about 240 people currently taking advantage of the service each month. The shopping street’s association of business owners added a second vehicle in autumn 2014. Users must first call the transportation service station located in the shopping area. The drivers are volunteers or shop owners, and use the vehicles to pick up the shoppers. If they live in the residential complex, the vehicles quickly reach their homes, and if they live outside the complex, the vehicles go to the border of the complex. The service is primarily for, but not limited to the elderly — it is also used by mothers with infants. The vehicles are order-made, with seats for two passengers attached to the front part of an electric bicycle chassis, making for a three-wheeled machine. The second vehicle also comes with space in the rear where pushcarts for the elderly can be placed. An 81-year-old woman who lives in the residential complex about a 20-minute walk from the shopping street said: “I have problems with my lower back and my ankles get numb. I can’t imagine going shopping every few days anymore without the transportation service.” Seiichi Hiruma, deputy head of the shopping street association, said, “Just delivering goods to people’s homes can’t fulfill an elderly person’s emotional needs. “They need to have contact with others, such as shopping while looking at actual goods, chatting in stores and meeting acquaintances on the streets,” Hiruma said. “Sometimes we’ve noticed something wrong with an elderly person by talking to them during the transportation service.” Hiruma is already considering introducing a third vehicle to the fleet. [© the-japan-news.com] For EVLN posts use: http://evdl.org/evln/ {brucedp.150m.com} -- View this message in context: http://electric-vehicle-discussion-list.413529.n4.nabble.com/EVLN-2passenger-e-trike-transport-2-from-downtown-jp-shopping-tp4675000.html Sent from the Electric Vehicle Discussion List mailing list archive at Nabble.com. _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
