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East Nippon Expressway Co., Ltd., Ltd. (NEXCO EAST), Central Nippon Expressway Co., Ltd. (NEXCO CENTRAL), and West Expressway Co., Ltd. (NEXCO WEST) are working to improve convenience at Expressway service areas (SA) and parking areas (PA). In addition to expanding the number of large vehicle parking spaces, they are also designating some of the parking spaces at 11 rest facilities as "short-term parking spaces," limiting parking to 60 minutes or less, and are beginning a demonstration experiment from November 2023 to ensure opportunities for large vehicle drivers to rest.
One year has passed since the introduction of the short-term parking spaces, and we have confirmed the benefits, such as an increase in the number of vehicles using the space for short periods of time (60 minutes or less) and an increase in the turnover rate of the parking spaces. As a result, we have decided to Large the installation of the short-term parking spaces to 24 new locations in order to ensure more opportunities for resting (see Attachment 1 [PDF: 542 KB]).
On the other hand, as a certain number of vehicles were found to be parked in short-term parking spaces for more than 60 minutes, we will introduce image processing technology to determine parking time at some of the rest facilities that have short-term parking spaces and provide information to enable more customers to use these spaces appropriately.

1. Effects of the trial implementation and new installation locations

　The following effects were confirmed for the short-term parking stalls installed at the E1 Tomei ​Ashigara SA (In-bound) (see Attachment 2 [PDF: 494KB]):

Therefore, we will be Large the installation of new parking spaces at the 24 rest facilities shown in Table 1. We will notify you at a later date when short-term parking spaces will be introduced at each rest facility.

Table 1 Rest facilities where short-term parking spaces will be newly installed

2. Requests (initiatives) for appropriate use

At the 11 locations where the short-term parking stall demonstration experiment was conducted, a certain number of vehicles (approximately 30%) were confirmed to be parked for 60 minutes or more, mainly in the middle of the night and early morning. In addition, if all vehicles parked for 60 minutes or more were to be used appropriately within 60 minutes, it would be possible to create short-term parking opportunities for more than 752 vehicles per day at the 11 rest facilities (see Appendix 2 [PDF: 494KB]).
NEXCO companies have been informing customers through the installation of guide signs and posters (see Attachment 3 [PDF: 626KB]), but in light of this background, we will start an information provision initiative in which parking time is determined using image processing technology as shown in Figure 1 and displayed on monitors installed at rest facilities with short-term parking bays as shown in Table 2. By introducing information on parking time using this image processing technology, we aim to encourage more appropriate use of short-term parking bays and to create more opportunities to rest.

Table 2 Rest facilities that use image processing technology

• The implementation date will be announced later.

Figure 1. Example of planned introduction of image processing technology: E4 Tohoku Expressway Hasuda SA (In-bound)

NEXCO companies will continue to take measures to combat congestion, including installing short-term parking spaces and expanding the number of parking spaces at rest facilities, in order to ensure that drivers of large vehicles have opportunities to rest.
Drivers of large vehicles using short-term parking spaces are asked to park in accordance with the signs and road markings within the rest facilities, make use of the monitors inside some rest facilities, and leave within 60 minutes of parking.