Seoul City Bicycle Road System Reflecting Citizen Opinions to Fully Launch This Month

If You Take a Photo While Riding and Submit It via the App, You Will Receive a Response Within One Week

[Asia Economy Reporter Jo In-kyung] The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced on the 5th that it has established a platform within the bicycle-specialized application 'Open Rider,' developed in collaboration with the private company Coupit Co., Ltd., where citizens can directly propose bicycle policies, and will begin full-scale operation from this month.

Open Rider is a bicycle-specialized app with over 1.1 million members nationwide, offering functions such as bicycle path guidance, speedometer, and ride record management.

When citizens encounter inconveniences such as discontinuities or narrow bicycle paths during riding, they can press the 'Riding Environment Improvement' tab in the Open Rider app to check whether the same issue has already been reported (proposed) among existing lists, then click 'Like,' or take a new photo themselves and register the issue that needs improvement.

If a proposal receives more than 20 'Likes' from bicycle users, it is officially accepted as a proposal, and a review will be conducted within one week, after which a response can be received.

This system is designed so that citizens can conveniently make proposals immediately on-site using the mobile app they already use, without needing to access a public website, as soon as a problem is discovered.

The city pre-recruited 5,000 'Seoul Bicycle Mates,' who will actively serve as activists presenting opinions on bicycle infrastructure maintenance through the Open Rider app. Furthermore, these citizen proposals will be linked with the Traffic Policy Support System (TAIMS), analyzed as big data, and utilized in establishing new policies.

Starting with this collaboration with Open Rider, the city plans to expand the platform to allow policy proposals through all private apps that provide bicycle and map information in the future.

Hwang Bo-yeon, Director of Urban Transportation at Seoul City, said, "The reality and challenges of the bicycle usage environment are best known by the bicycle users themselves," adding, "We will continue to expand communication channels to build a bicycle usage environment that citizens want."

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