Asuka Area has many historic resources that are located in a wide area, which attracts several millions of tourists a year. In this area, most of tourists sightsee around by foot or bicycles. However, at some areas where land use is limited under the name of historical conservation areas, buildings like shops that are used for signs in sightseeing are rarely exist. Though road signs are placed at some important intersections, there is also a demand for a better route guidance. In addition, as road networks are not fully developed in this area, traffic congestion occurs around parking areas during peak hours of tourist vehicles. In this Asuka area, there is a possibility of enhancing the comfortableness and usability of sightseeing for travelers moving by foot or bicycles, through the provision of route guidance or historic and cultural information using ITS technologies for pedestrians. As a result, by changing the methods of sightseeing from private vehicles to foot or bicycles, improvement of traffic environment is expected. The Nara National Highway Work Office of the Kinki Regional Development Bureau, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport held a field trial in the Asuka Area in cooperation with Nara Prefecture, Kashihara City and Asuka Village, to identify effectiveness of route navigation and tourist guidance using PDAs (personal digital assistance) as well as problems under the diffusion. As a result, from the inquiries to monitors, the information provision system using Asuka Navi was proved to be effective. This paper reports the results of the evaluation to realize comfortable sightseeing by foot or bicycles and contribute to the active development of regions, by providing route navigation or historic and cultural information using ITS technologies for pedestrians.
Samenvatting