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Expressway charges changing again > ETC = worthless


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And it's on, starting December 1st, 2011, going through March 31st, 2012.   Final version (Nov. 2011) of map of Tohoku expressways that will be free from 2011.12.1 through 2012.3.31: Blue-green:

I can't explain the price other than to offer that it is a competitive market. As long as one lot are making a decent living renting parking at Y500 per day, the others don't really have much option.

 

The second point. On another forum I follow, there were dire warnings of breakdown of law and order, and mass outbreak of disease after the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. My response was that was inconceivable. Reason: this is Japan.

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yeah Soubs, I read a few of those as well and shook my head with a knowing smile......for all the complaints that us fussy Gaij have, Japan is prob the best place (if you can say that) to be when a disaster strikes, because the locals think of the group first and themselves a very distant last. I also got a bit mad when reading some post-disaster quips from the International Rescue Squads that were dispatched to Japan in the aftermath. Some of them complained that the Japanese didn't really use them effectively and they could've done more if the locals let them off the leash and how the Japanese Government should've done more......my response to the posters on various forums who would quote these stories were that if this had happened in any of our home countries, it would've played on for far longer as madness and hysteria descended. Breakdown of command would have happened as the public worried about what was to come......that didn't happen in Japan due to the make up of Japanese society, and for that I am eternally grateful.

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  • 2 weeks later...

They finished yesterday.

So no more 1000 yen upper limit.

Will be interesting to see how this affects people.

 

I know there were moans of busy roads in some places, but for example while the Kanetsu was busier on a weekend, it certainly wasn't anywhere like being at a standstill. Outside of the immediate Tokyo region that is.

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Anyone here in Tohoku get their "get past the gates free" thing?

Not bad if you can get it.

All those folk who had their cars swept away by tsunami and have no home might be questioning it's use though.

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I guess it is to make it easier to get supplies up there and move people around?

 

A bit late though, they should have took action on this on March 12 when it might have made some difference.

 

This just smacks of 'GANBAROU NIPPON' (ie. all talk no action)

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I guess that there were about 4,056,030,340,305,045 decisions - maybe even more - that had to be made on March 12th. It's understandable that everything that might have been great in hindsight didn't happen.

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The Tohoku expressway was closed for something like a month after March 11th. Probably closer to 45 days in Fukushima and Miyagi. We had no fuel supplies for over two weeks, and very intermittent supplies for a further month. Everything had to be trucked in via Niigata or shipped to Sakata and trucked from there. Neither have an expressway connection.

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A fair amount of work but not an enourmous amount of chewed upness from what I saw of the section between the Yamagata and Ban-etsu interchanges. The remedial work mainly comprised laying wedges of tarmac to smooth the transitions between the elevated sections (which had compacted/subsided) and the bridges/farmers underpasses (which hadn't). It really was a roller coaster ride compared with my previous trips.

 

I checked out Nexco's website at the time. They had some photos up showing some bridges had become dislocated from their supports at the expansion joints. Also some sections where the road has slumped rather than settled. The Yamagata expressway was closed mainly because Nexco were concerned about avalanches and landslides. Clearly there needed to be some serious engineering and surveying carried out, not just patching.

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Originally Posted By: soubriquet
Yes. I see it covers the Joban from north of Mito, and the northern part of the Tohoku expressway. I presume it also cover the Ban-etsu expressway between Iwaki and Koriyama.


I think it covers the Ban-Etsu from Iwaki clear over to Niigata. Looks like every highway north of the Ban-Etsu is covered as well.

Which is a different question from who is eligible for one of those "victim certificates" that allows free use of those stretches of highway.

Originally Posted By: SKI
You eligible for the free pass, soubs? And Metabo perhaps?


Shockingly enough, it looks like I am eligible. Not based on damage to my house, which is nothing I can't fix in a few Sundays by myself (wife permitting...), but because my town is handing out certificates to everyone resident on 3/11, as apparently are many other towns, based only on black-outs and water stoppages that resulted from the earthquake.

To be honest, I would feel a bit ashamed getting a certificate based on that. Fortunately, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transportation and Tourism is still debating opening up those highways to everyone from August, to encourage tourism to the region. If that happens, I won't have to have my sense of propriety put to the test.
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Metabo, I wouldn't feel any shame in taking them. You do live in one of the most damaged areas. The government are giving them out, its not like you'll be taking it from someone else who is in need. If you qualify, then go for it I say

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