Expressways of Japan

The expressways (高速道路 kōsoku-dōro, lit. high-speed road) of Japan make up a large network of controlled-access toll expressways.

History
In Europe and the United States outside Japan, expressways were running from before World War II, but in Japan where the spread of automobiles was delayed compared to Europe and the United States, the construction of the expressway itself began considerably late.

Construction concept of highway
The concept of expressway construction itself is a businessperson Sugawara Tomari Economic exclusive paved road of 306 mile 64 chains (about 493 km) between Tokyo and Osaka in 1929 (at the time of the Showa 4) Project cost 80 million yen (then) It was the first time that we had a plan to build and operate in private. This “Nippon Expressway Corporation” plan is a comprehensive plan of the railway business and the toll road project in which the road management company itself also carries out passenger and freight transportation (bus and truck operation), and also makes general vehicles toll toll, and a plan Although it was submitted to the authorities, it was not realized at all in the era before the automobile generally got popularized in full by the depression and the subsequent wartime regime. It was called the bullet road in the sense that it was able to run faster than the bullet in the road plan before World War II which was the first time in Japan to bring the highway concept. It was named after the railroad that became the original form of the Tokaido Shinkansen “Bullet train”.

It was inspired by the German autobahn and debate of the highway exclusive national highway began around 1938 (Showa 13 years). In 1943 (1943), the Ministry of the Interior formulated a nationwide national highway plan. The total extension was 5790 km, the design speed was 150 km / h for the flat part and 100 km / h for the hilly part. Although it was planned due to national defense requirement, it was terminated because of the war situation in 1944 (Showa 19).

The activities of the two people, Tanaka Kiichi and Tanaka Kakuei, who struggled for the reconstruction of Japan after the defeat, served as a great opportunity to create a highway in Japan. A businessman from Numazu, Tanaka Seiichi, drafted the “National Land Development Vertical Auto Road Conception” as a concrete measure for universal development of the land which became the central proposition of the land reconstruction plan in 1947 (1947) , This initiative also moved members of parliamentarians at the time and became the driving force to realize the construction of highway. Tanaka Kakuei was a politician who clarified the direction of road improvement in the postwar Japan’s road development and later became prime minister, and promoted legislation that uses volatile oil tax as a road specified resource especially in 1953 (1953) It was a major support for securing stable funding for road maintenance.

Opening of highway
Full-scale realization of freeways in Japan has been in the period of high economic growth in the Showa 30 ‘s, and the highway connecting the major cities with the background of motorization as the backdrop, and the city high speed in the big cities such as Tokyo Roads will be built at a rapid pitch. A plan was formulated as a national policy, and the maintenance of the expressway network continued to be promoted subsequently in the form of entrusting management to the Nippon Highway Public Corporation until the beginning of the 21st century. Along with that progress, the main force of freight transportation in Japan has become dominated by automobile transportation by trucks from conventional freight trains.

When the Government of Japan asked the World Bank for financing to realize the construction of highways, the Watkins Research team in the United States who came to Japan in 1956 (1956) submitted about the pros and cons of Japanese highway construction The report at the beginning of the reported report, the so-called “Watkins Report”, was a severe criticism of the poor quality of the Japanese road situation at the time. The Government of Japan, which was stimulated by Watkins’ remark, established the Highway Vehicle National Road Act in 1957 (1957) the following year, to steer ahead from the land transportation policy that we have prioritized the railway to highway construction became.

The opening of the expressway in Japan is the first time between the Meishin expressway Ritto IC – Amagasaki IC (71.7 km) in July 1963 (Showa 38 years). This year, the year before the opening of the Tokaido Shinkansen, the news of the birth of the road where the car runs at 100 km / h will speed up the world. In addition, Kyoto city on this route became the city where the highway first ran in ordinance-designated cities. In 1965 (Showa 40), the whole line between the Nagoya-Hanshin area of ​​the Meishin Expressway (Komaki IC – Nishinomiya IC, 193.9 km) was completed and the travel time that took five to six hours by car so far, It will be tied in about two hours.

While swinging at the choice of the Central Expressway or the Tomei Highway or the priority of construction, the demand for construction of high-speed car national road occurred across the country, and in 1966 (1966) In 1954), the government established the Land Development Main Line of Motorway Construction Law as part of the Land Development Development Long Construction Law was revised, centering on the so-called longitudinal five roads of Central, Tohoku, Hokuriku, China and Kyushu, A highway network with 32 routes 7600 km linking prefectures nationwide was planned.

However, due to a change in the social traffic situation afterwards, the plan was revised as the plan was insufficient. Revised change was made in 1987 (Showa 62) and it was decided by the Cabinet decision of the 4th National Comprehensive Development Plan that the highway 43 routes of 15,152 km, the general national highway exclusive road 2300 km, Honshu-Shikoku connecting road 180 km High-standard trunk road network consisting of high-speed transportation network of 14,000 km in total length was planned.

Since the Showa 40’s, Japan’s highway construction has been promoted in earnest, partial opening of the Tomei Expressway began in 1968 (Showa 43), and in the next 1969 (Showa 44) the Tomei highway Between the Tokyo – Nagoya district (Tokyo IC – Komaki IC, 346.8 km) was fully opened. Also in the same year the Central Expressway Fujiyoshida Line was opened, and in 1982 (Full Showa 57) all lines of the Central Expressway opened.

The two major cities of Tokyo and Osaka are tied up by highway and it will be active as an aorta of goods transportation and after that the expressway has steadily opened in various places from Hokkaido to Kyushu and Okinawa, Construction of highway is being carried out in various places. Currently, it is 12,373 km.

The motorcycle two-seater was banned in Japan from 1965 (1965) because it is dangerous. This was a rare case with Japan except for the Republic of Korea worldwide. There, the problem was raised from the United States to the market opening problem complaints handling promotion meeting, and the content was “to prohibit the motorcycle two people riding on the highway is a non-tariff barrier to hinder large motorcycles”.

As a result of the momentum of deregulation, the Special Committee for Motorcycle Association was established at the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association, and as a result of investigating the actual situation in Germany and Italy in Europe, accidents are extremely few, and the risk is 3 minutes on the general road Of 1, and the accident occurrence rate was also below the one-seat ride. Against this backdrop, a bill to cancel the ban on double-occupancy was submitted at the 159th National Assembly in 2004, the bill was promulgated on June 9 of that year, and it took effect in 2005 one year later.

Classification
There are the following on the highway in Japan.

High-standard highway
High-speed car national road (A route)
Highway Route Designated by a Cabinet Order that designates a highway national highway route based on Article 4 (Significance of expressway national highway and designation of route). Originally the construction and management of the national highway is to be carried out by the Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, which is the road administrator, but for the high-speed car national road, by the laws, each highway company in eastern Japan, central Japan, and western Japan (before the privatization, Japan Corporation (JH)) has been delegated.
National Lands Development Trunk Line Expressway (National Highway)
One of high-standard arterial roads planned to be built under the Land Development Development Train Route Construction Law. The current total distance is 11520 km including the unopened section. Designate the highway national highway route in order of decreasing ordinance from the section of the planned route where the basic plan was decided.
Designated by the government ordinance from the planned route of the road to be constructed as a high-speed automobile national road (excluding the planned route of the National Lands Development Trunk Expressway)
Four routes of Narita International Airport Line – Kansai International Airport – Kanmon Expressway – Okinawa Expressway are designated.
General highway automobile exclusive road parallel to national road highway (A ‘route)
Necessity of maintenance of all sections of the routes which are originally planned in high-speed car national road is low, but it is urgent to develop general national highways in part to resolve congestion and to eliminate bottlenecks in mountainous areas in part Road where parts section was improved in advance. Sometimes it is incorporated into high-speed car national roads. Taxes (Construction cost burden of the country and prefecture is 2 to 1) or construction is added by adding high construction cost from East Japan · Central Japan · West Japan highway company (Japan Highway Public Corporation (JH) before etc before privatization) etc.
High-standard arterial road based on the designation of the Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (car national highway in general road) (B route)
Road designated by the Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism under Article 48 of the Road Law.
Honshu-Shikoku connecting road
It complies with B route.
Regional high standard road
Urban area car exclusive road
Urban expressways and important routes.
General
All lines excluding exclusive roads for urban areas.
Other vehicle exclusive roads
Automobile exclusive road which is not classified as high standard highway and region high standard road.
※ The types of expressways and construction methods have become more complicated, such as conflicts of interest between the provinces and differences in how to create construction costs.

Road conditions / traffic conditions
There are roads where roads classified as Type 1 and Type 2 by Road Structure Order are highways but exceptionally restricted to enter and exit Class 3 Level 1 roads and designated as roads exclusively for motor vehicles.

The expressway must satisfy the following conditions.

Incoming and going out is limited to lamps such as interchange (IC) etc.
As a general rule, reciprocating lanes are separated by a median strip (except provisional 2 lanes).
The way of intersection with other roads, railroads, etc. must be three-dimensional intersection.
It is linearly suited for high-speed driving of cars.

Also, the toll conditions of the expressway are as follows.
It is limited to traffic only for motor vehicles (including motorcycles exceeding 125 cc). Pedestrians, light vehicles, mini cars, motorcycles of 125 cc or less, mopeds can not pass (In high-speed national roads and motor roads with the lowest speed limit, cars that are driving small compact cars and other vehicles, 50 km / h It is impossible for vehicles that can not deliver the speed above).
Regarding motorcycle two-seater, which had been banned since 1965, it was pointed out that the Federal Government of the United States is a “non-tariff barrier”, and with the amendment of the law in 2005 the ban on two-seater was lifted . If it is over 21 years old and you have received a license (large 2 wheel or 2 wheels) for 3 years or more, you can drive a person other than the driver (some sections of the Metropolitan expressway, etc Except for the section that is designated as a no-trip).
On expressways, parking (excluding service areas and parking areas) and stoppages (excluding toll booths, etc.), turning, crossing the vehicle, backing are prohibited.
For maximum speed and minimum speed, refer to each item.

road sign
Road signs of highway and car exclusive roads in Japan were established in 1963 (Showa 38 years), and information signs written in white letters on green spaces are used for information signs.

Font emphasis on visibility, what was called a standard letter (public corporation character / public corporation Gothic) of the original typeface developed by the Japan Highway Public Corporation was used. In 1963 (Showa 38 years) in the form of a faster speed opening in the form of several types of font patterns used for signs for practical use, visibility and other tests were done. Public corporation letters were produced to recognize at 100 km / h from 100-150 m up to 6 seconds when posted as a sign. For that reason, the characters are angular, so we omit a part of the characters with a large number of strokes or break the balance to ensure visibility, so it is a very unique character. In the past, I was pointed out that I misspelled a letter because it omitted. However, when there is no character to use as a name when a new expressway or IC is opened, it is necessary to newly prepare it, and depending on the combination of letters, since the top and bottom of the letters are not aligned, “Tokyo” or ” Kyoto “etc., there was a time and effort to make the same letters twice.

In 2010 (Heisei 22nd), the layout was changed, the Japanese typeface was Hiragino or Newgo, the alphabetical letters were Bialog, the numbers were Full Tigger, the size of the characters was 5 cm larger than before (55 cm in Japanese, English sentence In 30 cm). In the new layout, the character size increases and the visibility improves over the old type of sign, as the font is changed. Also, in the old layout the alphabet was less than half the size of Japanese, whereas in the new layout the size of the alphabet is over half the size of Japanese.

For the signs of city high speeds such as the capital high speed and Hanshin Express and car exclusive road managed by the Tokyo Outer Ring Expressway / Regional Road Authority Public Corporation, the Gonna or New Yoga has become mainstream since the 1990s.

There are cases where the highway is laid out for access signs to highway / car exclusive roads. A structure with 2 to 6 ribs attached to an ordinary road sign.

Finances
Japan’s expressway development has been financed largely with debt. It was intended to make the expressways free when they are paid off. The Meishin Expressway and Tomei Expressway debt has been fully paid off since 1990. It was decided in 1972 that tolls would be pooled from all expressways to provide a single source of operating funds, since some sections were little used. Earthquake resistant construction methods have added to costs, as well as extensive soundwalling. In March 2009 (then) Prime Minister Taro Aso unveiled a plan to reduce tolls to ¥1,000 on weekends and national holidays. Tolls on weekdays would be cut by around 30 percent. According to the National Expressway Construction Association, 4.41 million vehicles use the expressways daily, driving an average of 43.7 kilometres (27.2 mi).

National expressways
National expressways (高速自動車国道 Kōsoku Jidōsha Kokudō) make up the majority of expressways in Japan. This network boasts an uninterrupted link between Aomori Prefecture at the northern part of Honshu and Kagoshima Prefecture at the southern part of Kyushu, linking Shikoku as well. Additional expressways serve travellers in Hokkaido and on Okinawa Island, although those are not connected to the Honshu-Kyushu-Shikoku grid.

Features
Most expressways are 4 lanes with a central reservation (median). Some expressways in close proximity to major urban areas are 6 lanes, while some in rural areas are 2 lanes only with a barrier on the center line. 2-laned sections are built to a standard that allows conversion to 4 lanes in the future.

Speed limits are normally 100 km/h (62.1 mph) , and a minimum speed of 50 km/h (31.1 mph) is also enforced. Vehicles unable to reach 50 km/h, such tractors and mopeds, are forbidden from using the expressways. Speed limits may also be reduced temporarily (due to adverse driving conditions) or permanently (in accident-prone areas) as speed limit signs can be adjusted electronically.

Many rest facilities such as parking areas (usually only with toilets or small shops) and service areas (usually with many more amenities such as restaurants and gas stations) serve travellers along national expressways.

Route numbering
On October 24, 2016, the Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism had recently introduced a new format of route numbering system for national expressways. In this route numbering system, expressway route numbers begin with the prefix E (for non-circular route) or C (for circular route) followed by their respective numbers. Expressway routes are numbered according to the national highway routes that they are parallel with; for example, the Tōmei Expressway is assigned with the route code of E1 for being constructed in parallel with the Route 1. However, there are exceptions in this rule, as there are some expressways that are assigned with the two-digit numbers greater than 59 which are not used in the national highway route numbering system. The Tsugaru Expressway is an example of this exception, it is numbered E64, but it parallels Route 101.

If there are more than one expressway being constructed in parallel with their respective national highways, newer expressways within the same corridor may have the suffix A at the end of their route numbers, while the earliest one is exempted from having the A suffix. For example, the Chūgoku Expressway and San’yō Expressway both run in parallel along the Route 2 corridor, but the San’yō Expressway is assigned the route code of E2 for being constructed first, while the newer Chūgoku Expressway is assigned the route number of E2A.

Tolls
National expressways are expensive to use, with the 325.5 kilometres (202.3 mi) journey from Tokyo to Nagoya on the Tōmei Expressway costing ¥7,100 in tolls for an ordinary car.

With a few exceptions, tolls on national expressways are based on distance travelled. When entering the expressway, one collects a ticket, which can be inserted along with the fare into a machine or handed to an attendant upon exiting the expressway. There is also an Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) card system installed in many cars which automatically pays at the toll gate. As of 2001 toll fees consist of a 150 yen terminal charge plus a fee which depends on the distance travelled.

Tolls are always rounded to the nearest 50 yen and include consumption tax. If there are two or more possible routes from the entrance to the exit, the toll will be calculated based on the shortest (cheapest) route.

Tolls collected from all routes are pooled into a single fund and are used to repay the entire network. It is expected that all national expressways in Japan will be fully repaid 45 years after privatization (2050).

Some future national expressways are planned to be built according to the New Direct Control System, whereby national and local governments will absorb the burden for expressway construction and operate toll-free upon completion.

Urban expressways
Urban expressways (都市高速道路 Toshi Kōsokudōro) are intra-city expressways that are found in many of Japan’s largest urban areas. Due to lack of space many of these expressways are constructed as viaducts running above local roads. The two largest networks are the Shuto Expressway in the Tokyo area and the Hanshin Expressway in the Osaka area. There are other smaller networks in Nagoya, Hiroshima, Kitakyūshū, and Fukuoka. Each network is managed separately from each other (the Fukuoka and Kitakyūshū Expressways are managed by the same company but are not physically connected to each other).

Others
All roads in Japan that are built to expressway standards (including national and urban expressways themselves) are known as Roads for motor vehicles only (自動車専用道路 Jidōsha Senyō Dōro). If a road for motor vehicles only cannot be classified as a national or urban expressway, it may be classified into one of the following categories.

National highway for motor vehicles only with national expressway concurrency (高速自動車国道に並行する一般国道自動車専用道路 Kōsoku Jidōsha Kokudō ni Heikōsuru Ippan Kokudō Jidōsha Senyō Dōro)
Roads in this category are built to facilitate future incorporation into the main route of a national expressway. Examples include the Michinoku Toll Road, the Higashi-Mito Road and the Futtsu Tateyama Road.
National highway for motor vehicles only (一般国道の自動車専用道路 Ippan Kokudō no Jidōsha Senyō Dōro)
Roads in this category are national highways built to expressway standards as designated by the Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. Examples include the Ken-Ō Expressway and the Tōkai-Kanjō Expressway.

Problem

Environmental impact
There is a possibility that the natural environment and the living environment of the land may deteriorate with respect to the construction of the road, and opposition campaigns by residents in the vicinity may occur occasionally in view of that point. In addition, when the highway is built on the river by elevated roads, the environment of the river deteriorates, or the roads are sometimes created by crushing the rivers themselves. In that case, problems arise not only in the natural environment but also in the landscape. In fact, conflicts related to environmental problems have broken out in various areas, especially in the central area of ​​the area, construction injuries stopped frequently from residents along the railway lines and environmental protection groups. Taking these factors into consideration in recent years, as one of countermeasures, there is adopted a method of establishing an environmental facility zone with planting trees and sound insulating walls, taking a land width of 10 to 20 m outside the road.
Also, in urban areas where traffic is heavy, noise may be a problem, and many of these highway highways have giant sound insulation walls that continue to end indefinitely. Originally it was a soundproof wall like a temporary workpiece, Osamu Shinohara of the University of Tokyo was a member of the committee for soundproof wall design consideration on the expressway, the design of the soundproof wall which was supposed to imagine the armor fence Since then, it has been widely established into a soundproof wall design that uses a transparent acrylic plate or the like in a form that wraps the inside of the road, in some cases.

Instability of road planning
Since expressway is designed to run at high speed compared to general road, construction cost tends to be high. The plan itself may be frozen and changed due to various circumstances such as social situation, and even if planned, there are some routes that are not even under construction. Therefore there are cases in which there are no prospects for opening of the whole line even if a part is opened. Especially in the rural areas where the development of the highway network is not progressing, the chiefs of the municipality may develop construction promotion campaigns.

Manner problem
On expressways, the behavior of the driver tends to cause serious incidents of accidents when compared with general roads as the vehicle moves at high speed. Problems which have been regarded as a problem in recent years include the throwing and falling objects problem of garbage etc from the vehicle, the expenses for restoration work and the safety measures of staffs from year to year since the arrival at the site by patrolling and reporting by the management group It is getting serious.
From the National Public Safety Commission for the purpose of countermeasures against falling objects and safe highway traffic, it is recommended to use the high beam in principle on the expressway at night. Of course, those involved in driving are required to use properly with low beam due to highway conditions such as “one side lane on one side”, but many drivers do not do high beam for various reasons, secondary collision etc. derived from it There are many accidents.
Even if criminal responsibility is not asked if a secondary collision has occurred and the criminal responsibility is not asked in the case of secondary collision occurring as a result of continuing traveling with the low beam without proper cause for not being aware of the accident occurred in the front In some cases, civil liability for damages can not be avoided. In the precedent case, as a result of traveling on a highway on a highway, the responsibility for causing a secondary collision was questioned, and the second party was united with the first party (a person who became the main cause of drinking and a series of accidents) There are cases where orders of compensation of 340 million yen were ordered.

Construction cost and reimbursement
Highway in Europe and the United States has many tolls free of charge, but in principle all tolls are charged because in Japan the toll road system was established by the Act on Special Measures on Road Maintenance Established in 1956 (Showa 31).

At the beginning of the construction, the highway national road was in principle positioned as a toll road that does not open free until the borrowings at construction were repaid. For this reason, after borrowing for each line was repaid by each line’s revenue, it was scheduled to be released free. However, in October 1972, the “Enforcement Order of Road Improvement Special Measures Law” was amended by the 1st Tanaka Kakuei Cabinet to introduce the nationwide charge pool system, and the balance of the highway nationwide was added up As a result, it got to return the borrowings of other deficit lines with the revenue of the line with many users including the Tomei Expressway. As the construction cost was covered by deficit government bonds, freeing was often postponed.

On August 7, 2002, the Committee on Privatization of Road-related Four Public Corporation abandoned the free opening of the expressway and decided to permanently charge highway along with privatization of the Japan Highway Public Corporation. As a result, the possibility of free opening of the expressway disappeared once. With the policy of privatization of the public road public corporation, repaying the loan within 45 years after privatization in 2005 (2005), dissolution of the Japan Expressway ownership and debt repayment mechanism will be based on Japan Highway Ownership and Debt Repayment Organization Act It is compulsory. Borrowing money at the time of privatization is said to be about 40 trillion yen.

After that, in the House of Representatives election in 2009, the Democratic Party won the victory with the pledge to freeway free. If free realization is realized, it was planned to be free regardless of the model basically as well as major roads of developed countries such as the American freeway and Germany’s autobahn, but the opposition from the railroad, bus and shipping industry persisted Above, the Social Democratic Party, the Democratic Party of Japan coalition government was asking for reconsideration as “(as with the elimination of the provisional tariff rate of gasoline tax) against the countermeasure of global warming and extra financial resources”. Within the Democratic Party, about half of the members of the Democratic Party also expressed concern about this policy and were taken up in the business sorting list even during the administrative reform committee, the policy changed twice. As a result, the Democratic Party I did it.

There are also lines that are open to the public as a general highway automobile exclusive road parallel to the expressway high speed national highway and a part of the express highway national highway, some high-standard highway roads, and other automobile exclusive roads. In addition, Niigata West IC of the Hokuriku Expressway – Niigata Kurosaki IC was only released in 1989 (1989 first year) in highway national highway due to the opening of Niigataisezai bypass connecting Niigata Nishi IC.

The fee collection period at the time of privatization is said to be up to August 27, 2050 for highway 3 company and Honshu Shikoku road connection bridge, until September 30 th, 2050 for Hanshin High Speed ​​and Hanshin Expressway, In 2014 (Heisei 20), the law was revised so that it is possible to collect fee from September 30, 2065 due to the necessity to secure repair resources for obsolescence.

Source from Wikipedia