- Okinawa Summit and ITS
Land transport in Okinawa Prefecture, where there is no railway service, depends only on vehicles. To provide smooth and safe roads in time for the Okinawa Summit which was held in July 2000, various ITS technologies were introduced to roads, along with road improvement projects.
Okinawa Prefecture took this opportunity to stimulate prefectural residents' interest in ITS and promote the introduction of ITS in the prefecture.

Okinawa Summit Meeting

VICS service started
Information provision service using VICS (Vehicle Information and Communication System, see 4-3) started in the southern and midwestern areas of Okinawa Island from May 2000. In addition, in order to develop future visions for ITS in Okinawa, a sample user test using 100 rental cars and 30 press buses fitted with a car navigation device compatible with VICS, and a questionnaire survey to investigate road users' needs were carried out.

ITS information center (Road information terminal at michi-no-eki Kyoda)

Introduction of ETC
ETC (Electronic Toll Collection System, see 4-8,9) was introduced at seven interchanges and junctions on the Okinawa Expressway.

ETC introduced at the Naha Interchange

Information provision through the Okinawa Information Station
Twelve information terminals connected to the Okinawa Information Station were installed at nine locations in the prefecture, including the lobby of Naha Airport, to provide various real-time information (e.g. road traffic information).

[ Effects of information terminals ]

• During the 3-day summit meeting, the information station attracted a maximum 715 inquiries (from Japan Air Lines' information terminals at the Naha Airport), followed by 451 (from All Nippon Airways' information terminals).

Set up of ITS information center
The ITS information center set up at the michi-no-eki "Kyoda," which is located midway between the venue of the summit meeting (Bankoku Shinryo Hall) and the press center, provided various information (e.g. road traffic information) and was used as the exhibition room of panels and videos presenting ITS in Japan.

Video and panel exhibition room set up in the ITS information center (michi-no-eki "Kyoda")

Real-time information provision using the Internet
Real-time information on traffic regulations due to road construction, predicted travel time when using expressways, traffic congestion, and vacancies at parking lots was provided through the information center's web site.

[ Example of effects ]

• The web site attracted 8,936 hits between 1 June and 23 July 2000.

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