Where Should Additional City Benches be Installed to Reduce Continuous Walking Distance? Comparison of Incrementally and Simultaneously Added Installations

ABSTRACT The present locations of city benches show the required continuous walking distance, which can be defined as the distance from a city bench to the furthest neighboring one, called the furthest neighbor distance (FND). However, we lack a method for identifying where additional city benches should be installed incrementally to reduce the FND. The aim of this paper is thus (1) to develop a new method for determining the priority of the locations of new benches, subject to the number of city benches; and (2) to investigate the relationship between the priority and the reduction of the FND. The reduction of the FND is quantified based on the probability of an FND greater than 100 m. The empirical study around Tokyo Central Station showed that if reducing the probability of the FND being greater than 100 m is the top priority, additional city benches should be installed simultaneously.