Japan has outlawed conventional steel tire chains. Japan collects data on roadway microclimates from RWIS sensors that monitor temperature, wind speed, wind direction, precipitation, and humidity. Officials distribute information quickly to highway rest areas and on assigned radio frequencies. Japan and Europe also use such information to adjust speed limits on variable-message signs. In addition, highway officials who know where weather is creating, or will be creating, roadway hazards can better decide where to assign personnel and machinery.
Officials also use gathered information to call out emergency vehicles.
Changeable signs controlled from highway offices advise motorists of the need to reduce speed or choose a different route. Winter maintenance vehicles also display changeable message boards. Ice and snow control has become a joint project of government agencies, private sector businesses, and individuals. The team found that Japan and Austria spent as much as two to three times more than the United States to maintain equivalent kilometers of road with equivalent amounts of snowfall. Equipment and personnel in the United States are expected to clear more snow from more miles of roadway than their counterparts in Europe and Japan.