On December 26, expressway companies summarized their “Maintenance Policy for Improving Convenience at Expressway SAs and PAs” and announced that they would “consider charging a fee for use of service areas and parking areas beyond a certain time” over the medium to long term as a measure to relieve congestion at these areas.
In response to the increase in the number of logistics trucks, the company has been expanding the number of parking spaces for large vehicles by changing the layout of existing parking areas, conducting social experiments with parking lot reservation systems (currently underway at seven locations nationwide), and charging for nighttime use at the Tomei Toyohashi PA (off-ramp).
As a short-term measure, we will promote expansion of parking spaces for large vehicles at SA/PAs on routes that are considered important from the viewpoint of parking space saturation and logistics. In areas where it is difficult to take measures within the site, we will consider expansion of land adjacent to SA/PAs or construction of new SA/PAs as mid- to long-term measures.
In addition, from FY2024, the company will begin studying the introduction of multiple-row (column) and multi-level parking structures.
In addition, “short-time limited parking” will be introduced and expanded on a trial basis at rest facilities (SAs) with many short-time users to ensure that vehicles are parked and that rest opportunities are not missed. This is intended to increase the turnover rate of parking spaces.
As a mid- to long-term measure, the company is considering charging for use over a certain amount of time, but based on the aforementioned demonstration experiment for a short-term measure (introduction of short-time limited parking spaces), the company is considering introducing charging in areas where the short-time limited parking spaces are less effective ahead of other areas.
In the future, the company plans to “charge for all use of congested SA/PAs over a certain period of time,” but has not indicated a specific date of introduction or fees.
© Source travel watch