The relationship between time and how people kill time in trains

There are a lot of researches where people’s behavior in trains was investigated, but the relationship between time and how people kill time in trains is unknown. This study reveals that time has something to do with how people kill time in trains. This result helps take steps to improve people’s behavior in trains.

In Japan, the train is major transportation as well as the automobile or the airplane but a Japanese research investigated by Macromill in 2002 reported that people who were given unpleasant feelings in commuter trains once every month at least accounted for more than 90 percent. According to this research, most of them are given unpleasant feelings by not only surroundings in trains but also passengers’ behavior¹. What behavior in trains or in stations people think of as most trouble was investigated by Nihon Minei Tetsudo Kyokai in 2005. The following was the result; the first place (24.8%) was sitting in a seat badly or not surrendering a priority seat, the second (19.9%) was calling with one’s cellular phone or ringing, the third (8.6%) was cutting into a line, the fourth (8.1%) was sitting on a floor, the fifth (7.1%) was making a noise, the sixth (6.1%) was listening to music with huge volume, the seventh (5.1%) was putting on her make-up². In this way, how people spend commuter time in trains has been investigated, but the relationship between how passengers kill time and when they are observed is unknown.

In this study, passengers were observed both in the morning (between at eight thirty and at eleven) and in the evening (between at seventeen and at twenty four) for five days, from July 2 to July 6 in 2007, in order to determine the relationship. Because people who were with acquaintances in trains could spend commuter time talking or doing something, only the lonely person was a subject of this observation. Passengers were divided into seven distinct groups: sleeping, using a cellular phone, reading a book or a magazine, reading a newspaper, listening, playing a game, doing nothing, in order to give light on the character relating to time. When a passenger came under more than one group, the main group was applied to the passenger. For example, a passenger who was sleeping, reading, or using a cellular phone with the ears on earphones was divided into the group of sleeping, reading, or using a cellular phone.

The date is expressed as a percentage because the number of passengers who are observed is different each time. The date is showed below as table 1 and 2.

According to this result, it may be said that there is no large difference between the percentage of each group in the morning and that in the evening. But this is not true of the percentage of “reading a newspaper” and “playing a game”. This result shows that in every day of five days, the percentage of “reading a newspaper” in the morning is higher than that in the evening and the percentage of “playing a game” in the morning is lower than that in the evening. The reason for no difference between percentages of other groups in the morning and that in the evening is mainly that time passengers were observed was not same for five days. Taking the percentage of “doing nothing” on the evening of July 5 as a concrete example, the date is obviously strange comparing with other four days. This is partly because the observation of that day was conducted later than other four days and as a result, the percentage of “sleeping” on evening of that day was higher. That time passengers were observed was not same necessarily means that crowdedness of trains also was not same. Here, based on following two facts, a hypothesis arises that that crowdedness of trains was not same affects this result. First, in trains listening with earphones requires smaller space than reading a book or a magazine and can be done even in crowded trains. Second, dispersion of percentage of “listening” is small; in contrast that of “reading a book or a magazine” is big. Therefore, this result suggests that future research is needed where the relationship between crowdedness of trains and how people kill time in trains is determined.

It is true that this study reveals that there is the relationship between time and how people kill time in trains. But obvious difference is not completely seen, and so future research is needed. If the relationship between crowdedness of trains and how people kill time in trains is revealed, steps to improve people’s behavior in trains are conducted more easily.

Table 1

In the morning / July 2 / July 3 / July 4 / July 5 / July 6 / total
Sleeping / 36% / 18% / 29% / 12% / 30% / 25%
using a cellular phone / 9% / 29% / 14% / 19% / 10% / 16%
reading a book or a magazine / 14% / 14% / 7% / 35% / 17% / 17%
reading a newspaper / 0% / 7% / 11% / 8% / 3% / 6%
Listening / 9% / 11% / 11% / 12% / 10% / 10%
playing a game / 0% / 0% / 0% / 0% / 0% / 0%
doing nothing / 32% / 21% / 29% / 15% / 30% / 25%
number / 22 / 28 / 28 / 26 / 30 / 134
Table 2
In the evening / July 2 / July 3 / July 4 / July 5 / July 6 / total
Sleeping / 28% / 6% / 21% / 43% / 25% / 24%
using a cellular phone / 20% / 11% / 27% / 27% / 15% / 20%
reading a book or a magazine / 20% / 31% / 3% / 13% / 20% / 17%
reading a newspaper / 0% / 6% / 0% / 0% / 0% / 1%
Listening / 12% / 8% / 15% / 10% / 15% / 12%
playing a game / 0% / 6% / 6% / 3% / 0% / 3%
doing nothing / 20% / 33% / 27% / 3% / 25% / 22%
number / 25 / 36 / 33 / 30 / 20 / 144

1 http://www.macromill.com/client/r_data/20020731densha/index.html

2 http://www.mintetsu.or.jp/enquete/archives/syousai5.html

Daiki Nukaga