Year-end and New Year period [December 28, 2020 (Thursday) to January 4, 2020 (Thursday)]
About Expressway congestion prediction [NEXCO EAST version]

~Please consider avoiding use on January 2nd (Tuesday) for Out-bound, and January 2nd (Tuesday) and January 3rd (Wednesday) for In-bound trips~

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  • Regarding prediction of congestion on Expressway during the year-end and New Year period [East Japan version]

PDF version [PDF: 3.8MB]

November 28, 2020
East Nippon Expressway Co., Ltd.

NEXCO EAST (Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo) predicts congestion on Expressway (10km or more We would like to inform you that we have summarized the traffic congestion (concentrated traffic congestion).

1. Congestion prediction and request for decentralized use

Peak traffic congestion within our jurisdiction

  • ○ Out-bound: Traffic jams occur mainly in the morning, with peak day expected to be January 2nd (Tuesday).
    Expected traffic jam of up to 25km near Hanyu PA on Tohoku Expressway around 11:00 on Tuesday, January 2nd
  • ○ In-bound direction: Traffic jams occur mainly in the evening, with peak days expected to be on January 2nd (Tuesday) and 3rd (Wednesday).
    A maximum of 35 km of traffic congestion is predicted near Kazo IC on Tohoku Expressway around 5:00 pm on Tuesday, January 2nd.

⇒Consider using it on days and hours when traffic is relatively light.

Number of traffic jams over 10km

  • The Out-bound direction includes the outer loop of the C3 outer ring road and C4 Ken-O Ken-O Road, and the eastbound of the E50 Kita Kanto Expressway.
  • In-bound includes C3 Gaikan Expressway, C4 Ken-O Ken-O Road inner loop, and E50 North Kanto Expressway westbound
Congestion frequency of 10km or more Image image of Out-bound direction
Image image of In-bound traffic jams over 10km

Prediction of especially long traffic jams in NEXCO EAST area (3rd worst by up and down direction)

Image image of prediction of particularly long traffic jam in NEXCO EAST jurisdiction

Comparison of number of traffic jams with the year-end and New Year holidays of 2020

Traffic jam scale Reiwa 5th year
12/28 (Thursday) - 1/4 (Thursday)
[8 days]
Reiwa 4th year
12/28 (Wed) - 1/4 (Wed)
[8 days]
Number of predictions Total traffic count Number of traffic jams caused by concentrated traffic (*)
10km or more 45 times 38 times 37 times
  • The number of traffic jams due to traffic concentration is the number of traffic jams excluding the effects of accidents, etc.

Notes on ETC Holiday Discounts

Holiday discounts for Expressway, etc. will not be applied during the year-end and New Year period from Saturday, December 30, 2020 to Wednesday, January 3, 2026.

Image of Expressway "Holiday Discount" not applicable from December 30, 2023 to January 3, 2024
Two-dimensional code image link to the page about exemption days for holiday discounts in 2023

2. Traffic Congestion Period Special Site/Traffic Congestion Forecast Guide Information

NEXCO EAST 's customer website `` DraPla'' has a special site for traffic congestion periods. In addition to posting a traffic jam forecast guide on the special site, traffic jam forecasters from each Regional Head Office in Hokkaido, Tohoku, Kanto, and Niigata, who are experts in predicting traffic jams and are familiar with regional characteristics, will explain in videos how to avoid traffic jams. I am.
The traffic jam forecast guide is also distributed in booklet form at each rest facility, so please take advantage of it.

Image of the 2023-2024 year-end and New Year traffic forecast guide by NEXCO EAST official traffic forecaster
Two-dimensional code image link to the 2023-2024 year-end and New Year traffic forecast guide page by NEXCO EAST official traffic forecaster (external link)
Congestion forecast guide image image for the year-end and New Year edition

What is NEXCO EAST “Congestion Forecaster”?

A person in charge of predicting Expressway traffic congestion with the aim of ``predicting when, where, and how much traffic congestion will occur, and encouraging distributed use to avoid congested days and routes to reduce congestion.''

Activity content

  • ○Predict Expressway congestion throughout the year
  • ○ Provide warnings regarding traffic congestion, especially before busy periods such as Golden Week, Obon, and New Year's holidays.
  • ○Call for distributed use to avoid crowded days and routes
  • ○Planning and verifying effectiveness of traffic congestion countermeasures

3. Congestion measures

Based on this traffic congestion forecast and the situation in previous traffic congestion periods (year-end and New Year holidays, Obon holidays, Golden Week, etc.), we will implement the following initiatives. [Attachment 2] [PDF: 327KB]

◆ Efforts in the main line
・Alert to reduce speed on In-bound, etc. ・Alert to rear-end collisions at the end of traffic jams

◆ Efforts at rest facilities
・Arrangement of parking lot controllers ・Securing large-sized vehicle parking spaces ・Installation of temporary toilets

Four. Avoid traffic jams

  • ○We will introduce topics as ``examples of avoiding especially long traffic jams'' that will lead to avoidance and reduction of traffic jams. [Attachment 3] [PDF: 855KB]
  • ○ The "AI traffic jam prediction" currently being tested on E14 Keiyo Road (In-bound line) will be renewed on December 13th.
     We will Large the scope of AI traffic congestion prediction to include not only Keiyo Road but also the E14 Tateyama Expressway Kisarazu JCT, and will also begin providing predicted travel time and traffic demand for each section selected by customers. Please help us avoid traffic jams. [Attachment 4] [PDF: 992KB]

Five. Requests to customers for safe driving and alleviating traffic congestion

Customer consideration will lead to alleviation of traffic congestion. Thank you for your cooperation.

  1. Be careful of slowing down on In-bound and “sag”

    Please help us speed up in places where we warn you to slow down, such as In-bound slopes or in sag areas *!

    • Sag section...point where the speed changes from Out-bound to In-bound, where speed tends to drop unconsciously
    Image to be careful about slowing down on In-bound /sags
  2. Do not over tighten the following distance
    Please secure enough following distance so as not to step on unnecessary brakes while driving!
  3. Avoid lane changes
    Please refrain from changing lanes more than necessary during traffic jams, as it will cause traffic jams to get worse!

When using Expressway, please check the "Precautions for using Expressway" [Attachment 5] [PDF: 1.1MB] before departure so that all drivers and passengers can travel safely. please.

The NEXCO EAST Group has positioned the period from 2021 to 2025 as "a period to contribute to the achievement of the SDGs and transform toward a new future society", and is carrying out various initiatives.
We believe that our efforts to predict traffic congestion on Expressway during the year-end and New Year period will contribute to SDGs goals 3 and 9 as business activities that lead to the provision of safe road spaces by alleviating traffic congestion.

Image of SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS logo and SDGs target 3rd and 9th logos
Image link (external link) to download page of Adobe Acrobat Reader

To view the PDF file, you need the Adobe Systems plug-in software "Acrobat Reader (Japanese version)". If you do not have​​​ Download from here (free)Please use it.