Porta-potty numbers along expressways to be tripled during Golden Week

For the upcoming Golden Week holiday, NEXCO and other expressway operators will increase the number of porta-potties in roadside service areas to 666, three times the number of past years. This is thought to be a necessary move amid forecasts that the increased number of travelers this year due to massive drops in travel costs will cause more traffic jams than in past years.

This year's Golden Week, which goes from Saturday to May 6, will be the first long season of successive holidays since road tolls in local areas have been discounted on weekends and holidays to 1,000 yen. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport calls the extra lavatories part of their "largest-ever efforts to handle traffic jams."

Other moves include more than doubling traffic call center staff, increasing tollbooth personnel and almost doubling the number of patrol cars that tail traffic jams and display electric signboards cautioning against rear-end collisions.

NEXCO President Keiichi Inoue said, "We're expecting traffic jams even in places where they don't normally occur. Please keep that in mind when you make your travel plans."

© News reports