Traffic Lights, CCTV, and ICT Combined... 'Smart Poles' Pilot Operation at Four Locations in Seoul

Improving Complex Urban Aesthetics and Inconvenient Pedestrian Environments

[Asia Economy Reporter Jo In-kyung] The Seoul Metropolitan Government is introducing a 'smart pole' that integrates various road facilities such as traffic lights and street lamps, which are currently installed separately and complexly throughout the roads, and combines them with ICT technologies like public Wi-Fi, intelligent closed-circuit (CC) TV, and the Internet of Things (IoT).

Seoul announced on the 13th that it has developed 10 basic models of 'citizen-experience smart poles' tailored to various road environments and will pilot-install and operate a total of 15 smart poles at four locations in Seongdong-gu and Jongno-gu starting in October.

Currently, various road facilities are individually installed in narrow spaces on roads in Seoul, which damages the urban aesthetics and causes inconvenience to pedestrians. The costs and inefficiencies of managing and operating each facility separately have also been pointed out as problems. For smart devices such as Wi-Fi, autonomous driving, and electric chargers, there are no separate installation standards, resulting in multiple devices being indiscriminately installed on a single pole, causing safety concerns.

In the pilot operation area around Cheonggyecheon Stream at Cheonggye 1-ga road, smart poles combining street lamps, CCTV, S-DoT (10 types of IoT sensors), and floating population measurement sensors will be installed to provide services that monitor urban phenomena and citizen safety. Additionally, at Hanyang University’s Youth Street and the Songjeong Embankment Road along Jungnangcheon Stream, smart poles equipped with CCTV, security lights, public Wi-Fi, S-DoT, motion-detection-based black boxes, electric charging, and emergency bells will be installed to create a safe route home and a pleasant walking environment.

Along the roads near Seongdong-gu Office, integrated smart poles combining traffic lights, street lamps, CCTV, and ground-level traffic lights will be installed, while at Wangsimni Station Plaza, eco-friendly smart poles equipped with wind and solar power generation functions to reduce energy use will be installed.

Through the pilot operation, Seoul plans to establish the 'Seoul Smart Pole Standard Model and Guidelines' by December, which will include standard models, installation criteria, and maintenance plans for smart poles. The city will distribute these guidelines to affiliated organizations and autonomous districts to expand smart poles throughout Seoul. Starting next year, Seoul intends to prioritize integrating various pole-type infrastructures, such as traffic lights that are replaced annually, into smart poles to reduce replacement costs while securing service infrastructure as a smart city.

Currently, Seoul has approximately 240,000 pole-type infrastructures (street lamp poles, traffic light poles, CCTV poles, security light poles), and about 3,500 to 7,000 poles are replaced annually due to the end of their service life, with an investment of about 39.6 billion KRW planned for this year alone.

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