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

  • European ITS Directive: From Minority Report to majority rapport
    December 1, 2023
    A 21-year old movie by Steven Spielberg appears to predict a C-ITS Day 3 use case. Richard Lax of Kapsch TrafficCom looks at the new European ITS Directive and idly wonders whether the great Hollywood movie director was once a European Commission intern in DG Move…
    Read More
  • Dart Charge goes live on 30 November
    November 14, 2014
    With the launch of Dart Charge set for 30 November, work to remove the toll booths will begin on Friday 28 November - the same weekend the new payment arrangements go live. Dart Charge means that drivers will no longer stop at a barrier to pay the charge. Instead, they will pay online, by phone, by post or in one of thousands of payzone retail outlets. The new payment arrangements will signal the start of major construction work to improve the road layout at the crossing, with 27 lanes of traffic reduced
    Read More
  • Australia’s laws are ‘not ready for driverless vehicles’
    May 13, 2016
    Australia’s National Transport Commission (NTC) has released Regulatory Options for Automated Vehicles, a discussion paper that finds a number of legislative barriers to increasing vehicle automation. The paper proposes that there are barriers that need to be addressed as soon as possible to ensure clarity around the status of more automated vehicles on Australia’s roads and to support further trials. In the longer term other legislative barriers will need to be addressed to allow fully driverless vehic
    Read More
  • Helsinki rolls out contactless transit payment
    March 3, 2025
    Trams are latest mode to tap in, following ferry and metro, with buses to come
    Read More

Highlighted Content