COST BENEFIT ANALYSIS OF SPEED LIMIT REGULATION FOR HIGHWAYS IN JAPAN

Abstract

In Japan, the evaluation procedure for infrastructure investment projects have been developed well in past ten years, while the evaluations of regulatory provisions are yet to be implemented in spite of OECD recommendation for applying cost benefit analysis (CBA) to regulations. One of the candidate regulations for applying CBA is speed limit regulation since speed limit is set by police agencies without any objective analysis, and the ongoing reform process in road sector is considering relaxation of speed limit in general trunk roads as an alternative policy option. This paper proposes an analytical framework based on CBA and make an attempt to apply the framework to objectively evaluate the resulting costs and benefits due to relaxation of regulated speed in one expressway route in Japan. The result of analysis demonstrates that a net positive benefit can be achieved by upgrading regulated speed.