### e. Building a flexible system of road administration

To implement a flexible system of road administration that provides a diversity of road functions tailored to the needs of the local residents -- including safe walking spaces and places of regional buoyancy and human exchange, and making motor-vehicle traffic smoother and safer -- the MLIT is implementing: (a) preferential measures, such as the construction of new sidewalks on national or prefectural highways by municipalities other than the designated cities; (b) a system for suggesting that municipalities refurbish pedestrian safety facilities; (c) preferential measures for road occupancy, such as boulevard trees planted by NPOs or others, street lamps, etc.; and (d) preferential measures for the administration of off-street convenience facilities to keep roads and roadside facilities under integrated management.

## Section 3 Realizing Traffic with Enhanced Convenience

## (1) Advancing implementation of integrated urban/regional traffic strategies

Intensive city planning that ensures safe, smooth traffic requires a cross-sectional approach to the available transportation modes—such as cycling, railway, and bus—from users' standpoint, rather than reviewing the transportation modes or their operators individually. To this end, each local government should inaugurate a council composed of public transportation operators and other stakeholders and let the council define a future vision of its cities and regions, and the types of transportation services to be made available, so that it can formulate “Integrated Urban/Regional Transportation Strategies” that cover relevant traffic measures and working programs (as of March 2015, Integrated Urban/Regional Transport Strategies had been formulated or were being formulated in 81 cities), with the stakeholders taking their respective shares of responsibility for implementing measures or projects. The national government is expected to support the implementation of integrated and strategic packages of traffic projects, such as the development of LRT $ ^{Note} $ pursued according to the Strategies, and city planning programs.

## (2) Promoting Smart Use of the Roads

Compared to other countries, Japan’s road networks are weak, with fewer lanes on expressways and existing networks that are not fully utilized. Specifically, due to the uneven time/space aspects of the traffic demands, there are problems with travel performance, such as traffic jams occurring at certain locations as well as issues of safety, ease-of-use, and cooperation with the districts. For example, currently the amount of time a car is stuck in traffic is approximately 40% of all transit time. Compared to Europe and North America where this figure is approximately 20%, this is a great social loss.

In order to achieve road transit service that is smooth, safe, comfortable and contributes to increasing area vitality, MLIT is moving forward with efforts to further improve the functionality of existing roads by working on developing necessary networks, as well as improving operations and small-scale enhancements.

MLIT is also working on traffic demand management and bottleneck prevention strategies that are based on scientific analysis, in order to make smooth transit possible.

In order to secure safe road transit, the MLIT is putting into effect thorough and efficient accident prevention measures on arterial highways using ‘Big Data’, such as, for example, prevention against sudden braking. In addition, the MLIT is redirecting traffic on residential roads to expressways that are safer in order to eliminate through traffic while also implementing limits on traffic speed.

To improve the usability of roads, the MLIT is working to improve the service of road guides and rest stops, as well as revitalizing the flow of people and goods by improving access to traffic hubs such as airports/seaports, and developing transport nodes such as station plazas.