Illogical smart highway management policy in Japan

• Main Author: Yoshiyasu Takefuji
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2021-03-01
• Series: Transportation Engineering
• Subjects: Smart highway management; Weather policy; Weather forecast
• Online Access: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666691X21000075

This paper reports an illogical policy on smart highway management in Japan. Heavy snow in Japan on Dec. 17 in 2020 revealed the failed link in the current policy between the smart highway management and weather forecast. Weather forecast information is supposed to be used in controlling the gates in highway for mitigating stranded vehicles by heavy snowfalls, blizzards, freezing rain or sleet, dense fog, high winds, and other weather-related phenomena respectively. However, more than several thousand vehicles were stranded every winter on the smart highway in Japan. This paper examines what is wrong and what should be fixed in the current highway policy in Japan.