Traffic reduction falls far short of target in Tokyo highway test

In Japan, Popular hotels have queues of taxis waiting to pick up passengers and they occupy the 1st lane of the Road. Taxi's delivering passengers occupy the 2nd lane... this means 2 lanes of a road are frequently blocked by Taxis.

This is totally wrong, and bad hotel/traffic management.

What's the Legal risk here for the hotel - should someone - such as a Cyclist have an accident due to this congestion ?

Why have The Olympics somewhere not congested at all, like , Siberia!

Sam Watters, don’t worry about the athletes, if there is any hint of a possibility that they will be late the authorities will just close off the route to normal people, and even more so if it is an IOC big wig.

If the goal is to discourage drivers from driving on certain routes at certain times, the variable toll system will only work if most drivers have the option of driving at different times or on different routes. Unfortunately, this is not the case: emplyers are not going to refigure personel schedules and deliveries still must be made on time. The only way that it could work is for all businesses in the area, from giant corporations to family shops to reschedule their times and coordinate that rescheduling with all other businesses. Oh, and free buses everywhere and at every time would help, too.

Failing that, what you will have is a new transport tax, the cost of which will inevitably be passed along to consumers in Tokyo.

Add athletes missing events due to traffic congestion to a long list of other likely disasters (heatstroke being another) to this poorly planned Olympics. The high prices for road tolls will remain long after Thomas Bach and his band of thieves have left Japan and moved to the next city to pillage. I have hated the Olympics ever since I found out that Shizuka Arakawa had to sew her own skate costume and fly coach while a dozen "administrators" flew first class and stayed in four-star hotels. The Olympics? Pass...

New Olympic event : Highway Dash

People should just drive around in circles during the games and block the expressways. Let the "VIP"s take the subway.

They achieved reduction, but the cost was chaos on the local roads. It was a mess on Wednesday afternoon in South Yokohama. An obvious non-driving oyajii gave the order and they totally blocked, not restricted, 4 consecutive entrances to the expressway, so no-one could get on it, leading to a mass of cars suddenly turning around, reversing, changing lanes and trying to go to Haneda or Tokyo by local roads. 

And that was at a quiet time!

Agree with BlackFlagCitizen; wouldn't be a great way to help the auto industry.

Urban planning has not progressed past Rickshaws, really! two lane roads funnel into one? Tollgates that open into six, seven lanes then back into two? I'm sure the designers were trained in the finest university's in Japan.....that's the worry.

It is not limited to roads, houses are small, food portions are small even the length of charging cables are short all the while prices are high, the general practise by businesses, construction companies is to spend little and make as much money as possible. There are still expressways with just one lane. Which is total madness, anyway why build two or three lanes when it will cost more and you can build one and still collect as much money as you can. Why build a 4 bedroom apartment for a family of five or more with 2 toilets and wash basins and shower and storage room when it is going to cost more. Why install aircons in every room and dish washer when it is going to cost. Comfort and convenience is the last thing that is thought of here.

An old house is demolished and the next day private realtors squeeze 3 houses on the vacant plot. Geniuses at squeezing.

I remember when Osaka did fake construction on roads to try to discourage cars entering the city core. People were not amused.

Urban planning has not progressed past Rickshaws, really! two lane roads funnel into one? Tollgates that open into six, seven lanes then back into two? I'm sure the designers were trained in the finest university's in Japan.....that's the worry.

With a practice run for the Olympics’ traffic flow, you would think that signs on the expressway would be bilingual (e.g. Japanese & English) but no chance of that. There were none. I had no idea which ramps were open & had to contact my office for advice on Friday morning. My usual journey took twice as long as normal as I usually drive to work.

Do the Olympics’ organizers & the Expressway managers think that only Japanese speakers will be driving cars in Tokyo during the Olympics & all year round ?! Take a tip from the train companies who have bilingual messages on all trains already & all Station signs are in romaji as well. Very practical.

it became obvious to me from Day 1 when they appointed former PM Mori as head of the 'organizing committee." the Japanese govt is just using the Olympics to line their pockets and those of their cronies in the construction business etc. The whole thing is a total farce. And what's worse is they do it all under the guise of showing how Japan has recovered from 2011. Do you think the people up in Tohoku will benefit from any of this nonsense?

Last Wed about 1800 the onramp I wanted to use was closed off meaning I was stuck for 90minutes to crawl about 3km to the next one which was THANKFULLY open

Traffic is one thing the govt will have little control  of other than pricing, someone above mentioned making it cheaper or free on stretches......h'm that might be an idea, BUT I doubt the DUMMIES that be would consider that!

rearranging the deckchairs......

Bit late in the day to be trying to sort out the traffic flow in light of the Olympics, they should have assessed (in light of and drawing on the experiences of other recent Olympic cities) and implemented a comprehensive traffic and travel plan with where necessary the requisite infrastructure improvements. Now that would have been a real games legacy that would have benefited the populace long after the games were over!

I have no doubt there will be cases of athletes missing events due to traffic chaos. The 17 kilometers can take hours in the peak times. There is nothing they can do to stop the peak hour rush and traffics jams. All the attempts are just moving the traffic jam somewhere else. Keep the tariffs on the highways the same or even make them cheaper. Encourage people to use the highways and free up the local roads for athletes and spectators. All of these initiatives only seem to focus on the mornings. The evenings are even worse.

The roads will back up rather quickly when people refuse to pay inflated prices.

I guess, You have not lived here long enough, people will pay without complaining.

Here is an idea, why not make the alternative routes that the Government what people to take, free? Just during the times that they want people to use the alternative routes. After all I am sure if drivers knew they could use a free route surely that would entice them to use it.

The roads will back up rather quickly when people refuse to pay inflated prices.

Timed correctly, two cars could shut down an entire entrance.

Paying road tax and tolls is bad enough. Increasing prices for the Olympics? Total absurdity!

shocker!!!!!!!!!

This whole thing is likely to be a disaster. I’m still considering to go on vacation outside of Japan and rent my house to tourists for the whole period.

I was in a taxi and the driver had on his GPS which entrances were open so we just went to another one than usual. Nothing much changed.

How small is the Metropolitan Expressway. It does not deserve the name.

All those foreigners coming from overseas with their cars are going to clog up the roads. Good plan guys!!

The time needed to travel on a 17-kilometer portion of the expressway between athletes' Olympic village in the waterfront area and the New National Stadium tended to be longer than 20 minutes targeted by the government during the tests, it said.

Tended to be longer?

22 minutes, 30 minutes or maybe an hour?

will start making detailed plans for introducing a so-called road pricing system to charge variable tolls depending on the time of day during the event, said officials of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism.

This is totally ridiculous. They’ll put premium prices in peak times, which will force many drivers into the already congested local roads. There are a large percentage who have to use the highways, and they will have to pay regardless.

Im surprised it is such a huge problem because he great leader Abe made it very clear in his campaign to the IWC that accommodation would be near the events and there would be new roads and infrastructure for the influx of visitors. Abe is so full of poop I can smell him talking from Chiba!

I'm very wary of this so-called road-pricing system. How do we know it will only be utilized during the Olympics and not become a standard price increase scheme?