Expressways @ 1000 yen

[JellyBelly 1]

Yes nice discount that.

[1 4]

I was wondering ---- has anyone ever been done for speeding after the fact and due to the fact that they got from A to B at, say, an average speed of 120kmh? All that data will be at hand now, wonder if they crunch it and can be used in that way?

[@tokyo 14]

I doubt they could use the data but it sure would be interesting to see the speeds people go. I wonder how many keep to the limits.

[Tubby Beaver 209]

back home there is a stretch of dual carriageway that has such a system, it takes a picture at point 1 then with the speed limit set they work out the average time it should take a car to cross the other point, if its faster than the average time then a "SLOW DOWN" sign flashes up.....they didn't give out tickets though

[muikabochi 208]

I've wondered that as well. With ETC it's all connected to your car and name too.

[indosnm 0]

Yeah but throw a service area stop in and that makes it a hard call. They need a camera or real life cop to bust you. I've done some fast times before and they don't care, just as long as you have the $$$$ (or yen).

[joshnii 2]

Would "service area stop" not make it even more evidence that you have gone VERY FAST, if indeed you have gone VERY FAST?

 

[grungy-gonads 54]

There will surely be some crunching done easy data as that is.

Would be fun to see how people use it actually and how usage has changed with the change in charges etc.

[iiyamadude 6]

Weekend warriors - have you noticed much change this season with people taking advantage of the 1000 yen expressway deal?

[Chriselle 158]

Honestly, no. BUT, I go to Nagano most trips. I think you are going to see the most congestion on the major tributaries leading in and out of the "The Big Smoke".

[Thundercat 60]

No change noticed... but I'm in the same boat as Chris. Chuo expressway and Joetsu seem pretty normal to me. I really enjoy the deal though!!! I figure I've saved more than 80,000Y this year (including a trip to shikoku).

[Tubby Beaver 209]

Kan-Etsu definitely feels the strain!!

[bobby12 0]

I sold my car partially due to increased traffic caused by 1000en tolls. The hyogo-nagano trip used to be doable after work on friday (set off at 6, arrive around 12:30) but it became a 9 hour nightmare.

 

To be fair it was too expensive before however, and it is good to force people into ETC for environments sake. Maybe they will up the prices again once all cars have ETC as standard.

[js 0]

The typical cost of a one kilometre length of Highway grade road in Oz is about $5M. (That's a seperated dual lane carriageway with all the mod cons, excluding bridges, seperate foot/bike paths, etc)

 

A good example is the 40km long, $1.5B M7 Motorway in the outskirts of Sydney.

 

This has travel tolling, which means you only pay for the length of road you use (between designated points) - the used the more the user pays.

 

Obviously, Oz doesn't have the climatic conditions of Japan, or the earthquake issues. These would add a substantial build cost to any road.

 

At $1.5B, no government could afford such an outlay and long time to recoup the money, so it's becoming more common to finance large State projects via the Build-Own-Operate-Transfer(BOOT)system.

 

A private firm is contracted to design and build it, own/opperate/maintain it for a certain number of years (usually between 10-30), then transfer it over to public ownership. As with all projects, the bugger is in the contract management - initial writing, adjusting (negotiations), policing, and avoiding grey/unforseen areas.

 

Using incentives, like those mentioned above, or like in London (congestion tax), increases the likelihood of people mode shifting to other forms of more efficient transport (public transport) or travelling outside peak periods.

 

In densely populated cities, the removal of tolls would create gridlock - and it's not simply a matter of adding extra lanes - like gas, motorists would quickly fill the gaps.

[NoFakie 45]

That's interesting SubZero, but I'd imagine the costs in Japan are far higher. Lots of tunnels and elevated sections.

[firetruck 0]

Big long tunnels too.