The Photo Does Not Show Traffic in Japan; It’s a Design by a Student in China
The Claim
This is an amazing model from Japan with no traffic lights on the road.
Emerging story
Facebook accounts have recently shared a photo they claimed was of a model for roads in Japan, with traffic lights removed.
Description: The screenshot shows the claim posted on Facebook.
Misbar’s Analysis
Misbar’s team investigated the claim and found it misleading. The photo shows a design made by a Chinese student in 2011 who studies traffic engineering at Harbin Institute of Technology in China.
According to China Daily newspaper, the student’s intersection design “proposes several swerve lanes, which help cars move ahead or turn in any direction without running into each other.”
The design, however, was described by many experts as “impractical.” In addition, the deputy director of the Urban Transport Center, Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development in China, said that “Beijing’s traffic volume is too huge to adopt the plan, or it could even worsen the situation.”
On the other hand, TecnoCarreteras, a website that specializes in monitoring initiatives related to the use of new technologies in road management, considered the design proposed by Li Xu suitable for a future in which self-driving cars are the norm.
“By controlling the cars via intelligent systems, all integrations in this model can be done without any problems, and without ever having to stop,” an article on the website read.
Translated by Ahmed N. A. Almassri
