Road transport accounts for a more than 92% share of total land freight transportation in Japan. For enhancement of transport efficiency there has recently been a rapid increase in large vehicles, especially over-standard vehicles. Such over-standard vehicles have a major impact on Japan's road structure and traffic as compared with the general large vehicles, and effective management of Traffic Management for Over-standard vehicles cannot be achieved unless efforts are made to seek an optimally harmonised balance of all aspects, including road structures maintenance, measures to ensure a smooth and safe flow of traffic, and efficient logistics management. This report discusses the problems of current over-standard vehicles management and presents the new over-standard vehicles management system that has been put into service in 2000. It also considers the direction in which over-standard vehicles management will develop in the near future with the application of state-of-the-art ITS technology.
Abstract