If any of you have driven in Japan you’ll know it costs about 40 dollars to drive the distance of the state of New York. That all changed on March 28 + 29th, where the Japanese authorities decreased their artificially high toll system to 1,000 yen (with some exceptions).

In most cases the traffic increased around 50%, on the busiest roads of Okayama interchange, and the Tokkaido roads. However the roads around Nagoya and the “central” road (Hachijyoji Junction) only increased their usage by a mere 3-5%.

How many more traffic jams does Japan now have? It has 30% more in some areas, but according to the authorities that is less than what they expected. “Please look at this from the perspective of in the long run, this will be good for our economy” a transportation ministry official said.