Japan switches to e-tolls amid Covid-19

Manned toll facilities to be phased out after outbreak of coronavirus among collectors
By Ben Spencer November 4, 2020 Read time: 1 min
Japan is to shut down toll collection booths in phases, starting with those with high usage rate of ETC cards (© Alan5766 | Dreamstime.com)

Japan's transport ministry is replacing manned toll collection facilities with an electronic system following outbreaks of coronavirus among toll collectors, according to the Japan Times. 

A working group within the Social Infrastructure Development Council is now phasing out manned toll collection facilities on Japan's expressways. 

Toll collection booths will be shut down gradually, starting with toll gates with a high usage rate of ETC cards. 

Drivers can insert an ETC card into a required in-vehicle device to automatically pay tolls. 

The ministry has already set out to automate toll collections on expressways with the ETC system. In 2015, the working group proposed the launch of studies on the full automation of toll collection as a future task.
 

Charging, Tolling & RUC

Related Content

  • CCAM innovation at ITS World Congress 2021
    September 27, 2021
    We live in an era of increasingly cooperative, connected and automated mobility (CCAM) but there’s still a huge way to go - visitors to ITS World Congress in Hamburg will be able to see projects, innovations and real-life solutions showcased in the city
    Read More
  • Integrating traffic management and tolling technologies
    April 25, 2013
    Jamie Surkont, head of road safety enforcement with Kapsch, outlines the company’s efforts to set up and align new traffic management business units with its more widely recognised tolling expertise The blurring of ITS applications’ edges brought about by systems’ increasing functionalities will ensure that many of the technologies which we have come to rely on for road and traffic management will find it increasingly difficult to exist or operate within tight market verticals. At the same time, systems man
    Read More
  • EVs: Time for a rethink
    December 14, 2021
    Given a growing body of evidence that EVs are not the clean, green machines they are made out to be, Andrew Bunn suggests they can only be part of the puzzle – not the answer to environmental problems
    Read More
  • Florida takes the lead in advancing multistate tolling interoperability
    February 13, 2015
    Florida is one step closer to meeting national mandate for interoperability, with the announcement that the Florida Department of Transportation has entered into an agreement with Neology, a subsidiary of SMARTRAC Technology Group, for the patents associated with specific licensed products that offer the 6C protocol for electronic toll collection (ETC). “The licence provided through the agreement with Neology allows the Department to implement a variety of strategies to provide toll collection services,”
    Read More

Highlighted Content