Gwangju City Provides Transportation Cards to Elderly Drivers Who Return Their Driver's Licenses

Gwangju City Hall

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Seon-gang] Gwangju Metropolitan City announced on the 3rd that it will implement a project to provide transportation cards to elderly drivers who voluntarily return their driver's licenses by the end of the year to prevent the rapidly increasing elderly traffic accidents due to aging.

Since October last year, Gwangju has been operating a system that provides a 100,000 KRW transportation card once to elderly people aged 70 or older who voluntarily return their driver's licenses.

Initially, this system awarded transportation cards to 500 selected returnees by lottery, but from January this year, to prevent elderly traffic accidents and promote voluntary returns, the system was changed to provide transportation cards to all elderly people aged 70 or older who return their driver's licenses.

Through this, a total of 1,925 people returned their driver's licenses and received transportation cards, including 500 people from October to December last year, 1,425 people who were not selected in last year's lottery, and new returnees from January to February this year.

Considering the high response to the system, Gwangju plans to expand support to 2,000 people this year by comprehensively considering budget securing and expected number of returns.

The eligible applicants are elderly people aged 70 or older with a resident registration address in Gwangju. They must visit the nearest police station's civil affairs office in person to return their driver's license and fill out the transportation card issuance application form. After receiving the application, Gwangju will send the transportation card by registered mail to the desired address by the end of the following month.

In this regard, in May last year, Gwangju actively carried out traffic accident prevention activities by producing 8,000 Silver Marks for elderly driver vehicles to encourage yielding driving that considers elderly drivers, distributing them through the Korea Transportation Safety Authority, district senior welfare centers, and community centers.

Additionally, customized safety education was conducted for 3,300 elderly people at 319 senior centers near frequent traffic accident zones, and practical traffic accident prevention education on safe walking methods and the dangers of jaywalking was provided to 150 elderly people collecting scrap paper and about 8,500 participants in senior job projects.

Park Gap-su, head of the city's Traffic Policy Division, said, “In line with the aging society, we will do our best to create a safe and comfortable Gwangju for the elderly by not only supporting the elderly transportation card project but also providing visiting senior center traffic safety education and reinforcing traffic safety facilities. Returning driver's licenses by elderly drivers is for the safety of all of us, so we expect active participation.”

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