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

  • Receiving real time passenger information in Finland
    February 3, 2012
    David Crawford sees lively prospects for Finnish innovation
  • US infrastructure: once in a lifetime
    April 23, 2021
    Expectations are sky-high for Amtrak Joe and Mayor Pete as they use infrastructure spending to rebuild the US economy post-Covid – and ITS firms should be able to get a share...
  • Auckland considers road user charging to plug funding shortfall
    October 29, 2014
    Auckland, New Zealand, faces a US$9.5 billion transport funding gap to build the fully-integrated transport network set out in the 30-year Auckland Plan that includes new roads, rail, ferries, busways, cycle-ways and supporting infrastructure needed to cope with a population set to hit 2.5 million in the next three decades. If Auckland opts to pay for the fully-integrated Auckland Plan, Auckland Council officials claim the transport network congestion is expected to improve by 20 per cent over the next 1
  • NHTSA looking at alcohol detection technology
    August 5, 2014
    Speaking at a Management Briefing Seminar at the Traverse City Conference in Michigan, US, Nat Beuse, associate administrator for vehicle safety research at the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said alcohol detection technology is one of several his agency is studying to lower traffic fatalities.