Rolling down the road
Apr. 30th, 2008 07:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mbarkerNot quite sure what to say about this. It was a news report here in Japan about an alarming rise in a new kind of traffic accident due to the ETC system. That's our local highway toll card -- buy one and zip through the express lanes at the tollgates?
Apparently the problem, especially this week with holiday drivers, is that the truck drivers have indeed learned to zip through. The signs say to slow down to 20 Kilometers per hour, but the system works faster than that. So the trucks have gotten used to running through at speed -- but the holiday drivers aren't. The news people had a series of videos of backend collisions -- which when the slow one in front is a private car and the fast one a tractor-trailer in back is not pretty. And the tollgate structures apparently contribute to the problem by adding shadows and reducing visibility.
So the ETC system is contributing to a rise in trucks rear-ending cars, mostly due to differences in driving styles. Aside from the obvious "raise the awareness" approach, apparently they are looking at changing the gates. Although it wasn't clear to me whether they want to speed up the the cars or slow down trucks -- or maybe both?
I wonder if the insurance companies will try to raise rates for ETC users?
Apparently the problem, especially this week with holiday drivers, is that the truck drivers have indeed learned to zip through. The signs say to slow down to 20 Kilometers per hour, but the system works faster than that. So the trucks have gotten used to running through at speed -- but the holiday drivers aren't. The news people had a series of videos of backend collisions -- which when the slow one in front is a private car and the fast one a tractor-trailer in back is not pretty. And the tollgate structures apparently contribute to the problem by adding shadows and reducing visibility.
So the ETC system is contributing to a rise in trucks rear-ending cars, mostly due to differences in driving styles. Aside from the obvious "raise the awareness" approach, apparently they are looking at changing the gates. Although it wasn't clear to me whether they want to speed up the the cars or slow down trucks -- or maybe both?
I wonder if the insurance companies will try to raise rates for ETC users?
