Dealing with traffic on the Chuo expressway

Most of my driving in Tokyo is usually to get out of it, to some far away mountain. There’s generally two ways I leave Tokyo:

• Via the Kan-estsu expressway, which goes via Saitama and out towards Gunma
• Via the Chuo expressway, which goes via Hachioji and out towards Yamanashi and Nagano

Now I haven’t used the Kan-estsu expressway enough to have a comment on its traffic, but the Chuo expressway is the bane of my existence. It actually has a popular song named after it called Chuo Freeway, but it’s nowhere near as fun as the song makes it out to be.

The Kobotoke Tunnel choke point

First up, you have the Kobotoke Tunnel (小仏トンネル), a common choke point. This is near the city of Otsuki, and on a good day is about an hour away from Tokyo. (It’s never a good day, though). The stretch of highway around that area has this point where three lanes merge into two, and then later on back into three again. And the tunnel is on a gentle upward slope as well. These things combined make for horrible traffic back into Tokyo, even on weekdays, but especially on weekends and public holidays.

They are in the process of building out a “new Kobotoke Tunnel” (新小仏トンネル) which will hopefully go some way towards alleviating the traffic jams, but we’ll see. I couldn’t figure out when that’s going to be completed though.

Getting off the freeway (Shinjuku area)

The second area prone to traffic jams is around Shinjuku itself, when I try and get off of the highway (I live in inner Tokyo). If you are choosing where you want to live and are planning on driving a lot, I would highly recommend living a little bit outside of Tokyo but near one of the highway ramps like Chofu, since this lets you skip the Shinjuku traffic entirely.

My traffic avoidance tips

1. When heading out of Tokyo, early morning is king. You’ll want to be on the highway by or before 6am on weekends for sure. You won’t have any traffic problems leaving the city in this case. Although on a three day weekend you’ll notice more traffic even by 6am. If you’re as late as 8am on a weekend, expect traffic.
2. Consider staying overnight wherever you’re going, and driving back to Tokyo in the morning. I once had this amazing experience where I was making a morning drive back into Tokyo around 9am, and I zoomed through the entire highway with very little traffic.
3. Otherwise, skip weekends and especially public holiday weekends if you can.
4. Or, you can come prepared with a pillow and take a nap in one of the parking areas. Driving back late at night is also super quiet.
5. Otherwise, regardless of whether you are coming back on a weekend or weekday, the drive back can be a bit of a hit or a miss. Maybe if you came as early as 1pm through the Kobotoke Tunnel area you might be fine, but I’ve been stuck in some traffic as early as 3pm or 4pm. Prepare yourself.