Gwangju City Announces 'Comprehensive Innovation Measures for Pedestrian Safety'

298 Billion Won Invested in 5 Major Strategies and 9 Customized Projects

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Seon-gang] Gwangju Metropolitan City announced the ‘Comprehensive Plan for Pedestrian Safety Innovation’ on the 15th and has officially begun establishing a pedestrian-centered traffic culture in cooperation with the Gwangju Police Agency.

The comprehensive pedestrian safety measures were prepared to shift the existing vehicle-centered traffic system to a traffic culture that prioritizes pedestrians and vulnerable road users, triggered by a pedestrian accident that occurred last November in the children protection zone in Unam-dong, Buk-gu.

The city plans to reduce traffic accident fatalities, the number of traffic accidents involving pedestrians, and the number of traffic accidents and fatalities in children protection zones by 30% by 2025, and to continuously improve pedestrian traffic safety indicators.

To this end, the city analyzed the total 62 traffic accident fatalities in 2020 by cause type and established five major strategies: ▲strategies by victim age ▲strategies by accident type ▲strategies by road type ▲strategies by time of traffic accident occurrence ▲strategies by offending vehicle type.

Based on this, nine customized detailed tasks were prepared, including the development and dissemination of the Gwangju-type children protection zone innovation model, pedestrian-centered traffic signal operation, and strengthening safety measures for personal mobility devices such as motorcycles and kickboards.

From this year through 2025, Gwangju plans to invest a total of 29.8 billion KRW, including national and city funds, to improve pedestrian traffic environment systems, signal systems, and related policies to drastically change citizens’ traffic culture awareness at a rapid pace.

First, the city will develop and disseminate the Gwangju-type children protection zone innovation model.

After conducting a pilot project for the Gwangju-type children protection zone, including start and end point markings, yellow traffic lights, and dark red pavement throughout the children protection zone, the city plans to spread and expand this model.

Following a detailed analysis of the installation effects through this year’s pilot project, the city will gradually expand the project from next year and invest a total of 27.4 billion KRW in national and city funds by 2025.

Additionally, in consultation with the Police Agency, the city will introduce a pedestrian priority start signal system.

The pedestrian priority start signal turns on the pedestrian signal earlier than the vehicle signal (usually by 3 to 7 seconds), allowing right-turning vehicles to easily recognize pedestrians crossing the crosswalk. This system will be tested in pilot sections this year and then expanded.

The city will promote traffic culture innovation by focusing on analyzing the morphological factors of serious traffic accidents such as injuries and fatalities, provided by the Police Agency and the Road Traffic Authority.

Also, the slogan selected for this year’s traffic accident reduction campaign, “Pedestrians are moving red lights,” will be continuously promoted citywide through a public-private-media system.

Diagonal crosswalks in an X shape will be installed at intersections with high pedestrian traffic to allow pedestrians to reach their desired destination in one crossing. In cooperation with the Police Agency, considering traffic volume and conditions, pilot projects will be conducted, and based on performance evaluations, a total of 550 million KRW will be invested by 2025 to set up 11 pilot sections.

Improving lighting at accident-prone intersections will reduce nighttime traffic accidents and secure pedestrian safety. Lighting improvements were completed at 22 intersections last year, and this year the city requested a demand survey for project sites from the Police Agency and will continue to promote the lighting improvement project including design services.

At intersections with low traffic volume during late-night and early-morning hours, the city plans to expand yellow and red flashing signals after review by the Police Agency to reduce pedestrian waiting times, prevent jaywalking, and focus on reducing traffic accidents.

For citizens’ convenience and accident prevention, the city will maintain over 200 locations of streetlight poles older than 15 years, underground piping and cables, and LED lighting.

Due to the recent surge in delivery companies and riders using motorcycles, which has become a social issue for traffic accidents, the city plans to conduct ‘on-site education’ for motorcycle drivers in cooperation with the Korea Transportation Safety Authority. Traffic safety education on road operation methods will also be provided for personal mobility device users.

Designated parking zones for electric kickboards will also be operated.

The city will establish a public-private cooperative plan with four electric kickboard operators to regulate speed limits, helmet wearing, prohibition of two or more riders, and proper parking through agreements.

Due to increased pedestrian inconvenience caused by illegal abandonment and disorderly parking, the city plans to have kickboard operators install dedicated parking zones and racks for electric kickboards on a pilot basis under the principle of beneficiary pays.

Park Nam-eon, Director of the Transportation and Construction Bureau, said, “Drivers are pedestrians once they get out of their cars,” and added, “This year, under the slogan ‘Pedestrians are moving red lights,’ we will launch a large-scale Gwangju traffic culture innovation campaign involving all citizens.”

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