Field Operational Tests in the New Tomei Expressway

The New Tomei Expressway, along with the New Meishin Expressway, will connect the three major metropolitan areas of Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka in Japan and its length will be approximately 330km. The construction of the New Tomei Expressway is carried out vigorously, with plans to open the section within Shizuoka Prefecture (from Gotenba to Inasa) by the end of 2012. We have field operational tests and demonstrations on completed sections of the expressway in advance to the opening to the public from February in this year. Many ITS technologies, such as vehicle infrastructure cooperative system and the system for efficient expressway operation, will be tested and demonstrated. This paper reports on the contents and some results of field tests, such as the latest ITS technologies and technologies from other various fields. Various kinds of field tests, such as providing effective safety information by ITS on-board units as DSRC, detecting road conditions by image processing and platooning operation of trucks, are taken from February, 2010.