The Nagano Winter Olympics due to be held in February 1998 will take place in a cold climate zone with heavy snow accumulation centering around the city of Nagano. During the Olympic games, a large number of visitors is expected to come to the Olympic locations so that it can be assumed that the access road in the Olympic region will be heavily congested. The introduction of ITS system technology will therefore serve the purpose of providing appropriate traffic information to the road users and of easing the problem of traffic congestion. This report highlights the ITS project planned for the Nagano region, a project intended as an ITS model case for the whole of Japan. It also gives an account of the present status of ITS development in Japan and of the efforts made to implement the technology.
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