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At NEXCO EAST Niigata Regional Head Office (Chuo-ku, Niigata City), on November 15th (Tuesday), four Expressway in Niigata Prefecture and other places will be serviced for the purpose of encouraging early replacement of winter tires and enlightening safe driving on winter roads. We conducted a winter tire installation rate survey in the area (SA) and parking area (PA).
　Winter tires are installed in 46% of all vehicles (68% for large vehicles, 24 % for small vehicles), and about 50% of customers do not have winter tires installed, which is still a low installation rate. This year, we have already observed the first snow in the mountainous areas of Niigata Prefecture's Expressway, and in the past, winter tires were regulated in November.
Please help us to change to winter tires early and carry chains.

1. 1. Outline of winter tire installation rate survey

Survey method

• Surveyor visually confirms the tire type of the vehicle parked in the SA / PA surveyed
• Investigate about 50 units at one location
• Large vehicles are oversized vehicles, large vehicles, medium-sized vehicles, and small vehicles are regular vehicles and light vehicles classified by charge type.

Survey place

E17 Kan-Etsu Expressway Tanigawadake Parking Area
E8 Hokuriku Expressway Yoneyama SA Kurosaki PA
E18 Joshinetsu Expressway Myoko Service Area

• All carried out on the Out-bound

Scheduled survey date / Result announcement date

• The survey date is subject to change due to weather and other reasons.

2. Survey results (surveyed number: 202)

3. 3. Request from NEXCO EAST Niigata Regional Head Office

• Please "wear winter tires early" and "carry chains".
  It is very dangerous to drive on snowy roads without winter tires, so if you have not yet installed winter tires, please replace them as soon as possible.
  When driving on winter roads, make sure that the tread depth of the vehicle tires is not worn down to 50% less than when new.
  Also, in case of heavy snow, you may be required to wear chains even on winter tires, so please do not forget to carry chains.

On Expressway in Niigata Prefecture in winter, there are vehicles that cannot climb slopes due to normal tires of ordinary vehicles and vehicles that cannot run due to stacking of large vehicles.

• Please drive slowly and safely on snowy roads.
  At the beginning of the snowfall season, the feeling of driving on snowy roads has not returned, so there is a tendency to cause traffic accidents even with winter tires.
  Please drive safely by keeping a sufficient distance between vehicles and refraining from speeding, and avoiding operations with "sudden" such as "sudden steering," "sudden acceleration," and "sudden braking."
  Also, stacks are more likely to occur during snowfall. The NEXCO EAST official youtube introduces the mechanism of stacking and how to prevent stacking, so please take a look at it as a reference for safe driving.

Reference video: "How to avoid getting stuck! ? I will explain how the stack occurs.』

• Please collect information frequently before and during your trip.
  The weather changes suddenly on Expressway in winter. Even if it is sunny at your departure point, it may be snowing at your transit point or destination, so please check road and weather information frequently before you leave or at service areas.
  "Drive Traffic (DraTra)" provides real-time road traffic information and Expressway surface conditions (snow live camera).

• " NEXCO EAST Niigata Regional Head Office Twitter @e_nexco_niigata"
  We provide information on traffic jams, closed roads, and driving / travel information in Niigata Prefecture.
• Please register as a friend of the LINE account "NEXCO EAST". Search ID → @e-nexco
  Last year, we operated the Niigata Regional Head Office version of the LINE account, but from November 16 (Wednesday), we have Large to the entire NEXCO EAST jurisdiction and started providing information on winter roads using LINE. We plan to send information useful for driving on winter roads, such as forecasts of road closures and road images, so please transfer your friend registration from the 2D code or new registration.

"NEXCO EAST" LINE friend registration two-dimensional code