Driving in expressway 2

Let’s go to the other category of the Japanese expressways. After you manage to drive through the metropolitan expressways as I mention in the previous case, maybe irritated with overcrowd there, you might be facing another irritations when you enter the trunk expressways.

This kind of expressways connects between big cities. The original and heavy traffic expressway is Tomei connecting Tokyo to Osaka. It was built in anticipation of motorization, helped by architecture who worked out a design of the Big Burn in the Germany highways. Since then, the trunk expressways have been stretching around the nation.

There are pros and cons about on-going constructions of the expressways because it seems to have something to do with local interests in the name of public investment. The Japanese citizens welcome more convenient life. However, if the government continues to stretch the expressways nationwide further regardless of true intentions of local citizens, we have to reconsider the construction for the growing national debts.

Maybe, its high maintenance costs and few traffic volumes raise the expressways tolls. The toll between Tokyo and Osaka, for example, about 20,000 yen. Compared with the American freeways which does not cost as the name implies, we can easily find how expressive the toll is in Japan. There are, of course, some other reasons such as the Japanese geography and labor costs not to make a simple comparison for its high tolls. But even in the trunk expressways, we want to drive smoothly any time especially in the weekend of holidays.

Why we have to be at a standstill on our way for long driving in the trunk expressways? Of course it’s not often. But sometimes we can’t move at all there. This is due to some kinds of accidents or natural traffic jam. The Japanese people rush to go somewhere at a time, especially in new year vacation and returning to their home town in Obon around the middle of August. There was a record once before that the cars parked on an expressway in the distance of more than 100 km. Unbelievable!

So what are the risks in this kind of expressways. Driving so fast is not only the risk. Even when we are at a standstill on the trunk expressways, we are exposed to the particular risk of rear-end collisions. After driving fast for a while on the highways, we come to get used to the speed. And thanks to the spacious views from driver’s seats, we lose a sense of speed soon and at the same time a sense of distance too. Worse many of the accidents in the expressways are caused by driver’s bad conditions. They usually drive trucks on tight schedules in order to carry cargo punctually. This is a very risky situation not only for drivers but the drivers unfortunately at a standstill in the end of lines. If you see a big track coming up to you without slowing the speed through the rearview mirrors, you could not reach your destinations for ever. You could do that with your feathers as an angel.

Risk management

:Avoid the expressways in overcrowding seasons.

:You should know what kind of vehicle is driving behind you.

:Put on hazard lights when you are slowing down.

:Think of how to position your car in the event that you are in the end of line.