The Tohoku Regional Construction Bureau has developed a system to use lasers on the roads and indicate the outer edge of the road with red laser light. The system enables drivers to know the outer edge accurately. After experiments were conducted in January 1996, the system was installed on National Route 7 in Aomori City in January 1997 to launch test operations and observe effects of the system.

Image diagram of laser. Range of irradiation: 80 m

Test operations got underway on National Route 7 in Aomori City. The position of the outer edge of the road is shown in red by laser.

-Tohoku and Hokkaido: To Provide Road Information through Internet Images
For ITS in cold districts, information on traffic conditions is provided using homepages on the Internet. Images recorded by cameras for road management installed on roads are provided as images on the Internet for universal access. In the Tohoku District, images of specified spots are updated every 30 minutes regarding traffic conditions at Michiyukizawa of the Gassan Road (Route 112), Sekiyama Pass, Sakunamiyado, and Sakunami-Kamakura of National Route 48, Kuriko of Route 13 and Fukushima and Motoyama of National Route 4.

The Civil Engineering Research Institute, Hokkaido Development Bureau, provided information under an "experiment to transmit images of mountain passes" from November 1997 to May 1998. The up-to-the-hour images of Nakayama Pass on National Route 230, Ishikita Pass on Route 39 and Hikachi Pass on National Route 274 together with information on weather, temperature, road surface conditions and traffic control were provided via internet. The images and information were updated every hour automatically.

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