Promoting urban light rail transit in a compact city context: the case of Toyama City, Japan

ABSTRACT Cities worldwide have introduced or revived light rail transit (LRT) to develop compact city strategies and help address environmental issues, such as increasing CO2 emissions or air pollution. Toyama is such a city that has addressed these issues by establishing a compact city rooted in transportation policies, notably the LRT established in 2006. Although there appears to be a consensus that the LRT contributes to establishing a compact city, contributing factors to ridership remain unclear. This study attempts to identify these factors, using the norm-activation model and theory of planned behaviour as a theoretical grounding, questionnaires for a data collection method and structural equation modelling for data analysis. The findings suggest that attitudes, perceived behavioural control and behavioural norms are significantly associated with the intention to use the LRT, which is, along with age, associated with its actual use. Based on these findings, this study provides theoretical and practical insights for cities wanting to pursue establishing or developing an LRT system.