From March 2005 the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MILT) and the Metropolitan Expressway Company Limited have been conducting F.O.T at the Sangubashi section of the metropolitan expressway using three-media VICS-compatible car navigation systems for drivers in providing information about oncoming forward obstacles. The AHS Research Association has been involved in this field experiment under the auspices of the MILT. This information provided on oncoming forward obstacles is contained in the Smartway Advisory Committee's future Vehicle-Highway Cooperation system development plan in the hopes of realizing and developing this service.
Observations conducted one month in advance showed that oncoming road hazards caused as many as 11 accidents while 80 times that number of vehicles applied their brakes suddenly because of oncoming road hazards.
This F.O.T succeeded in improving safety for high-speed curve entry and sudden deceleration by over 12% through the information provided by the on-board units.This was an even higher percentage than the 10% of vehicles equipped with onboard three-media VICS-compatible car navigation systems. It is believed that this result also positively influenced vehicles following from behind. The AHS also verified that it could effectively utilize quantitative understanding and analysis of accident conditions and the events that led up to them.
A combination of on-board units and display screens along with other countermeasures reduced the number of traffic accidents caused by oncoming forward obstacles from 33 in the previous year to 7. In addition, we confirmed that the experiment was able to maintain its effectiveness over a long-term period.
Over 50% of drivers polled felt that the service was helpful towards safe driving. The elderly gave the service particularly high marks, with 80% responding that it was useful.
