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Best Practices for Road Weather Management Version 2.0

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Title:

Study on the ITS-Based Traffic Operation Strategy in Poor Visibility Environment on Inter-Urban Expressways in Japan: Establishment of a Pilot Model

Abstract:

Expressway closures due to bad weather reaches more than 30,000 hours annually in Japan because of its geographic and meteorological peculiarity, and approximately 65 percent of them are caused by poor visibility due to dense fog and snowfall. Japan Highway Public Corporation has conducted several hardware-based measures and system-based measures to alleviate especially fog effects. At present, an ITS-based traffic operation strategy named "Vehicle Guiding Operation" is under the development, and one region with a terrible fog problem was selected as a pilot program field of the operation. With the operation, approximately 50 to 70 percent of road closures due to dense fog are expected to be reduced. After some experiments and field tests, ITS technologies for the operation such as millimeter radio wave sensor, and magnetic lane marker have been developed. Eventually, a pilot model of guiding operational vehicle equipped with obstacle detection sensor was established. The pilot model was introduced in Beppu region.

Source(s):

8th World Congress on ITS, Japan Highway Public Corporation. For an electronic copy of this resource, please direct your request to WeatherFeedback@dot.gov.

Date: 2001

Author:

Tomitaka, Kato, Mabuchi, Baba

Keywords:


Visibility
Fog
Vehicle guidance
Traffic control
Access control
Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS)

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