Around 24 percent of Japan’s traffic lights in fiscal 2023 were recognized as being past their replacement date, the National Police Agency said Wednesday, raising fears of serious accidents from signals malfunctioning or collapsing onto the road.
The life span of the controllers is generally 19 years and police data showed that in fiscal 2023, 49,684 traffic lights, or 24.3 percent of the total, were past the replacement threshold.
This marks the fourth straight year the rate of non-updated traffic signals has stayed in the 24 percent range.
The probability of a traffic signal working incorrectly rises 17 to 20 years after installation, the agency said. Of the 838 issues with traffic signals recorded in fiscal 2023, 473 involved controllers more than 19 years old.
Japan had about 100,000 traffic signals in fiscal 1980, rising to the 200,000 level from fiscal 2009. Including installation expenses, a single traffic light system renewal costs at least 1.4 million yen.
“Maintenance has become more difficult as the number has risen. A lot of the equipment is aging, and on an annual basis we see numerous cases of traffic signal posts and road signs collapsing,” a senior agency official said.
Concerns over aging traffic safety equipment come as the country’s deteriorating public infrastructure is under scrutiny following recent incidents including a sinkhole that opened in January on an intersection in Saitama Prefecture north of Tokyo, swallowing a truck and its driver.
© KYODO
© Japan Today
