The author describes how the development of transport facilities, in particular the road network, which supports people's daily lives and economic activities as one of infrastructures, was implemented in the course of modernization from the Meiji era (late 19th century) in Japan. In the middle of the 20th century, full-scale road network development started in 1954 when the first five-year plan for road development was formulated. Since then, an arterial road network of about 190,000 km has been constructed under several consecutive five-year plans that have provided funds for road development. The author also describes the road development systems as well as how road-related issues such as traffic congestion, accidents and environmental problems have been dealt with in the course of road network development. Further, the author refers to various technologies related to bridges, tunnels, earthquake countermeasures, etc. used for road construction in Japan, which is characterized by large mountainous areas and many disasters caused by earthquakes and typhoons. Today, the road development systems under which road network development has been promoted, are about to drastically change, more than 50 years since their establishment. In addition to this systems issue, the author discusses other issues remaining to beaddressed, including ITS which is expected to be developed much further in the road transport sector, and future directions. For the covering abstract see ITRD E139491.
Abstract