Democratic Party to Expand School Zones and Install 8,800 Unmanned Cameras

Democratic Party Announces Fourth General Election Pledge: Strengthening Pedestrian Safety Measures
Granting Pedestrian Right of Way on Roads Without Separation Between Sidewalk and Roadway

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy reporters Wondara and Jeon Jinyoung] The Democratic Party of Korea has announced pedestrian safety enhancement measures as its fourth policy pledge for the general election. The core of the plan is to expand child protection zones and install 8,800 unmanned cameras and 11,260 traffic lights in child protection zones over the next three years. They also stated that pedestrians will be given priority on roads where sidewalks and roadways are not separated.

According to the traffic safety pledge announced by the Democratic Party on the 3rd, the government will include "school routes" in the designation and management of child protection zones and install 8,800 unmanned cameras and 11,260 traffic lights in child protection zones over the next three years. Additionally, a project to create school routes around elementary schools will be promoted, installing sidewalks and pedestrian paths on 1,834 roads without sidewalks among the 6,038 elementary schools nationwide. The phased expansion of elementary school school buses and the extension of the reporting obligation for children's school buses to vehicles of private academies and sports facilities will also be pursued.

Beyond child protection zones, on roads without sidewalks and without a center line, pedestrians will be given priority of passage, and drivers will be obligated to protect pedestrians. Dangerous driving behaviors such as speeding over 100 km/h above the speed limit will be subject to criminal penalties.

The Democratic Party also announced plans to establish a traffic safety account to secure the budget. According to this, following the previously allocated 70.3 billion KRW for regional traffic safety environment improvement, the party will invest 465 billion KRW over the next three years to install unmanned cameras and traffic lights in child protection zones.

To expand the deployment of school buses, 119 billion KRW will be invested during the same period, with 20 billion KRW and 40 billion KRW allocated respectively to traffic safety vulnerable area projects and pilot projects for establishing pedestrian priority traffic systems.

Cho Jung-sik, chairman of the Democratic Party’s Policy Committee, said, "Due to recent various child traffic accidents, the policy demand for pedestrian traffic safety is increasing day by day," adding, "Through traffic safety policy pledges that prioritize 'children first' and 'people first,' we will protect pedestrian safety."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.