Porta-potty numbers along expressways to be tripled during Golden Week

Saturday 25th April, 05:13 AM JST

TOKYO —

For the upcoming Golden Week holiday, NEXCO and other expressway operators will increase the number of porta-potties in roadside service areas to 666, three times the number of past years. This is thought to be a necessary move amid forecasts that the increased number of travelers this year due to massive drops in travel costs will cause more traffic jams than in past years.

This year’s Golden Week, which goes from Saturday to May 6, will be the first long season of successive holidays since road tolls in local areas have been discounted on weekends and holidays to 1,000 yen. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport calls the extra lavatories part of their “largest-ever efforts to handle traffic jams.”

Other moves include more than doubling traffic call center staff, increasing tollbooth personnel and almost doubling the number of patrol cars that tail traffic jams and display electric signboards cautioning against rear-end collisions.

NEXCO President Keiichi Inoue said, “We’re expecting traffic jams even in places where they don’t normally occur. Please keep that in mind when you make your travel plans.”

News reports

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7 Comments

buddha4brains at 06:32 AM JST - 25th April

I'm relieved!
Pachinko893 at 06:55 AM JST - 25th April

It's gonna be a golden n brown week...isn't it mister grizzly?
mrhog123 at 09:17 AM JST - 25th April

666 the devils sign. Wonder how they picked this number
Richard_the_First at 09:48 AM JST - 25th April

My advice is to drive in Tokyo during GW. It's empty!
PaulieWalnuts at 09:49 AM JST - 25th April

666? bet they'll still have a devil of a time finding a clean one. it's hell on the roads during GW.
GW at 11:17 AM JST - 25th April

GW like Oshogatsu for me means staying close to home, pity those that have to go thru the madness of these "holiday" no thx!
nandakandamanda at 12:05 PM JST - 25th April

Was visiting Hiruzen/Daisen last Sunday. The women's room must have had 150 ladies in a line snaking right out into the parking lot. Great to be a man!