Gwangju City Launches Service for Downtown Road Speed Reduction Design

Speed Limit Adjusted to 50 km/h on General Roads and 30 km/h on Residential Roads

Gwangju City Hall

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Seon-gang] Gwangju Metropolitan City has started a speed reduction design project to adjust the speed limits on 326 km of major arterial roads in the area, in collaboration with the Gwangju Metropolitan Police Agency.

The city announced on the 8th that it began the design project for the 'Safe Speed 5030' traffic safety policy from the 27th of last month, ahead of the application of the Road Traffic Act Enforcement Rules, which will change the travel speed on urban roads starting April next year.

'Safe Speed 5030' is a safety policy that adjusts the speed limits on urban roads according to their use and situation to ensure pedestrian safety and reduce fatalities in traffic accidents. It sets the speed limit to 50 km/h (60 km/h if necessary) on general roads and 30 km/h or less on side roads such as residential areas.

Gwangju introduced this policy last year and promoted a speed reduction project on 59.2 km inside the 1st Ring Road. This year, with 2 billion KRW in national funding secured, the city is starting the project by initiating the design for 326 km of major arterial roads.

As part of this project, following the reduction of the speed limit to 30 km/h in all elementary school zones in March, it is expected that once the design project is completed in the second half of the year, the number of traffic accident fatalities will decrease by more than 30% through changes in speed limits on arterial roads, except where traffic flow is necessary. Drivers will be able to check the speed limits through speed limit signs and road surface markings.

Meanwhile, the 'Safe Speed 5030' project has been implemented early in countries such as the UK and Sweden. It was initiated in 2016 through a policy proposal by the National Police Agency to separately manage vehicle speeds in urban areas, considering that 76.4% of traffic accidents and 92% of pedestrian accidents occur in urban areas in South Korea.

As a result of pilot project operations, in Yeongdo, Busan, total fatal accidents decreased by 24.22%, and pedestrian fatal accidents decreased by 37.5%.

Notably, the total number of fatalities in 68 pilot areas nationwide decreased by 63.6%. On the other hand, side effects such as traffic congestion increased by an average of 2 minutes and taxi fares increased by 106 KRW, which were found to be minimal.

Park Gap-su, head of the city's Traffic Policy Division, said, "Through the implementation of Safe Speed 5030, we hope citizens will actively cooperate so that we can reduce local traffic accidents and become a safe and pleasant advanced traffic city."

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