Second day of traffic-easing trials conducted for Tokyo Games

July 26, 2019

Tokyo--The Tokyo metropolitan area underwent a second day of large-scale trials on Friday to ease traffic congestion on major roads, in preparations for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The trials, previously conducted on Wednesday, are aimed at testing whether measures to curb traffic such as closing entry ramps for expressways will work on Fridays, when traffic volumes are expected to be higher than on other days.

As with the first day, four entry ramps to the Metropolitan Expressway near the athletes' village and competition venues, including the Harumi ramp, were closed off for the whole day.

Additionally, traffic lights on the local Ring Road No. 7 were programmed to shorten the duration of green lights for vehicles heading toward the center of the capital.

A total of 37 entry ramps for expressways, including the four near the village and venues, were closed off as of 11:15 a.m. (2:15 a.m. GMT).

At 11:30 p.m., 7-kilometer-long traffic jam had built up on the Joban Expressway before the Misato toll booth in Saitama Prefecture.

A representative of the Tokyo Games organizing committee, which is conducting the trials, said, "There is no major impediment (to city traffic), but I feel it is generally more crowded than on (July) 24."

The daily number of vehicles on the Metropolitan Expressway fell to about 1,014,000 on Wednesday, the first day of the trials. The figure was roughly 80,000 lower than that on the fourth Wednesday of July 2018, put at 1,094,000 units.

The Tokyo Games organizing committee, the Tokyo metropolitan government and the national government are expected to analyze data collected from the two days of trials to discuss traffic-easing measures for the Olympics and Paralympics period, such as raising expressway tolls. Jiji Press