| 1.Significance of Smartway (The Need for Smartway)
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In tandem with the automobile, the development of roads and highways has created today's highly mobile society, enriching the lives of citizens and building a prosperous economy. Recently, however, road networks have failed to keep pace, both qualitatively and quantitatively, with rising traffic demand and changing public expectations. A litany of road traffic problems are becoming apparent in the form of an escalating number of traffic accidents, worsening congestion and a deteriorating environment.
To solve these issues quickly and create new values for the 21st century, Japan needs to implement at an early date a revolutionary new national infrastructure, incorporating a dynamic fusion of leading-edge information and communication technologies.
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[The Composition of ITS ] |
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Smartway is a community infrastructure that can meet these needs of the modern age. Smartway (meaning a smart, or intelligent, roadway) is part of a tripartite traffic system called an Intelligent Traffic System (ITS). ITS is composed of three advanced technologies: Smartway itself, an intelligent road system; smart cars (intelligent cars); and smart gateways (intelligent communications portals), a technology which negotiates the flow of information between the smart cars and Smartway. |
[The Definition of Smartway] |
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Smartway is a road or highway which enables a wide range of information to be exchanged among all of its users, including drivers, their cars and pedestrians, creating a platform for a variety of ITS services, and for building a comfortable and prosperous society and way of life.
Specifically, Smartway consists of systems of communication between the road and the cars, a variety of sensors, an optical fiber network incorporated into the road system, and a framework for integrating and applying these features in a wide range of ITS services. This framework is an open platform, composed of a set of standards and protocols which support the free and common use of information. Smartway is considered the key to the progress of the ITS project. It contains the fiber optic cables that form the backbone of ITS, and serves as the infrastructure which puts the "intelligence" in "Intelligent Traffic System." As such, Smartway will be expected to fill a pioneering rolling a new public system, flexibly accommodating the evolution of smart cars and smart gateways while responding to the unfolding needs of the public. In the following section, we will outline the road functions of Smartway and define the Smartway concept.
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| (1) |
Streamlining the Movement of People, Goods and Information |
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<1> |
The evolution of roads into highways and of highways into expressways served to streamline the movement of people, goods and information in each successive age, supporting socioeconomic development. Recently, although trends such as the rapid development of information technology have transformed Japanese society, road specifications have scarcely evolved since the introduction of the expressway, allowing an array of road traffic problems to appear |
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<2> |
Annual losses to society from traffic congestion currently total a staggering 5.3 billion hours and |
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<3> |
Moreover, as the nucleus of the next generation in road traffic systems, Smartway will form an efficient, convenient and easy-to-use transportation system to support a vibrant and comfortable mode of urban activity. In this way, the system will guide the development of new, multimodal technologies that will build a sound traffic system to serve the Japan of the 21st century. The benefits of this process will include a stronger global competitive position . |
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| (2) |
Creating a Comfortable Living Environment |
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<1> |
‡@ An unfortunate by-product of the increase in automobile traffic is an increase in occurrence traffic accidents. Annual fatalities in traffic accidents have risen to roughly 10,000 per year, and the number of traffic accidents resulting in bodily injury is a stunning 800,000. that any given person has approximately a 50% chase of being involved in an accident during his or her life time.
Smartway is a means of dramatically reducing the number of traffic accidents and making the nation's roads safer for its users, by providing information and assisting drivers.
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<2> |
As the graying of Japanese society increases in the 21st century, the nation's living environment will have to be adjusted to accommodate the need for the mobility of the elderly, handicapped and others who have difficulty moving around on their own. Ordinary drivers will also need a road environment in which the demands of driving are lightened. By applying advanced cruise-assist systems and making public driving spaces more comfortable and easy to use, Smartway will play an invaluable role in delivering barrier-free transportation to Japan's aging society. |
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<3> |
Automobile exhaust accounts for some 20% of Japan's total CO2 exhaust. Over the past 10 years, this volume has risen by an average of 4.3% per year. Japan needs to build a social framework that protects the environment of people living near highways while assuring society's mobility to fulfil the needs of Japanese economy and society. Smartway is a means of preserving a favorable environment by making road traffic flow smoother. |
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<4> |
‡C In spite of the relentless advances in communications and IT in today's society, the nation's road infrastructure remains stubbornly isolated from the information revolution. Conditions in the 21st century, however, can be expected to demand a seamlessly networked environment in which a wide variety of information can be transmitted and received. Smartway will turn the nation's roads into a sophisticated venue for the exchange of information. |
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| (3) |
Japan : Safety and Peace of Mind |
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The narrow confines of Japan's habitable land has forced its people to be concentrated to congregate in dense population centers. This central fact has define many aspects of the nation's economy and way of life and made the country more vulnerable to natural disasters. Only the network of roads that criss-crosses its lands made it possible to establish land use and administration appropriate to the characteristics of Japan's land. |
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To encourage the rational and efficient use of national land in the 21st century, Japan needs to create regional communities which overcome the limits of each region while making the most of their unique characteristics. By forming regional networks, Smartway will invigorate traffic both within and among regions, supporting the development of vibrant regional communities. |
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An added benefit of an information infrastructure such as Smartway is that it will erase the present disparity in availability of information among regions and make distance irrelevant in communications between regions. The resulting reorganization of the national land resources will support the formation of new regional community paradigms. |
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To deliver greater safety and peace of mind to Japan, the nation will need to put leading-edge technology to work to develop a powerful national disaster-response infrastructure, supporting the fast and accurate assessment and transmission of information on disasters and the provision of information on evacuation routes, detours and the like. Smartway promises to be a potent tool in the management of such a national infrastructure. |
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| (4) |
International Contributions to Global Issues |
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Creating safety and peace of mind in society, relieving environmental problems and enhancing the mobility of regional communities are all urgent issues that challenge not only Japan but the entire world. |
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Japan has long enjoyed robust growth by eagerly embracing national infrastructures developed in other countries and putting them to work in a domestic setting. Smartway is a wholly new concept in national infrastructure, designed in response to global issues. Its realization will be an important contribution to international society. A particularly valuable contribution of this advanced technology, forged in the crucible of Japan's densely populated land mass, will be the formation of prosperous societies in highly urbanized areas of the world. |
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<3> |
At the same time, Japan can look forward to making another lasting contribution on the world stage in terms of technological exchanges. Japan boasts a vast store of expertise in fields as diverse as automobiles, electrical power, electronics, communications, machinery and public works, all of which are core fields of development for the Smartway project.
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