Skip to main content

Japan takes unique action on road safety

In a bid to tackle the growing problem of collisions caused by deer, transport officials in the Japanese island of Hokkaido have taken drastic action. As well as spraying wolf urine near roads and railways they will also be broadcasting the roar of lions to try to keep the deer away. A spokesman for Nexco East, which runs the island's highways, said: 'Even though we have increased the height of fences to 2.5 metres from 1.5 metres, fences sometimes break because of heavy snow, so we need this stop-gap measu
June 26, 2013 Read time: 2 mins
In a bid to tackle the growing problem of collisions caused by deer, transport officials in the Japanese island of Hokkaido have taken drastic action. As well as spraying wolf urine near roads and railways they will also be broadcasting the roar of lions to try to keep the deer away.

A spokesman for Nexco East, which runs the island's highways, said: 'Even though we have increased the height of fences to 2.5 metres from 1.5 metres, fences sometimes break because of heavy snow, so we need this stop-gap measure while mending them.

Hokkaido Railway Company earlier this year erected equipment that broadcasts the roar of lions in an effort to keep the timid animals away from its tracks, a spokesman said. He added there were 2,581 incidents involving deer last year, a figure that had doubled in less than a decade.

Related Content

  • How WiM helps authorities identify repeat offenders
    May 31, 2023
    Company profiling – the process of identifying repeat corporate offenders when it comes to things like truck overloading – is one of many uses of WiM. And it may become more important
  • Near-fit technology can provide the solution - just ask the question.
    August 19, 2015
    When a company launches a product it never quite knows how that product will be used and what else it may be required to do. Lufft’s mobile weather sensor MARWIS is a prime example. Last winter Lufft introduced MARWIS, its mobile road weather sensor, handing it initially to long-term sales partners to test and improve. What was known was the sensor’s fast reaction rate (up to 100 Hertz), combined with its wide range of measurement information, and would provide users with a gapless overview of the road stat
  • Is DSRC progressive enough for future connected mobility?
    February 3, 2012
    Dedicated Short Range Communications technology, says Cisco's Paul Brubaker, is not by itself progressive enough to sustain long-term innovation in the connected mobility environment - and yet IPv6 and other developments remain largely ignored by policy-makers
  • Artificial intelligence changes Idemia’s image
    May 13, 2021
    Idemia pledges to make life safer for VRUs with new products based around existing technology, Jean-Paul Baldacci tells Adam Hill