Gwangju City Signs Safety Operation Agreement for Kickboards with Shared Service Companies

Active Consideration for Installing Electric Scooter Parking Zones Throughout the City Center

Kim Jong-hyo, Deputy Mayor of Gwangju Metropolitan City, attended a business agreement ceremony with shared service companies for the safe use of electric kickboards held in the city hall business room on the afternoon of the 23rd, and took a commemorative photo after signing the agreement. From left: Park Jin-su, Vice President of Korea Mobility; Kim Jong-hyo, Deputy Mayor; Lee Seon-haeng, General Manager of Jeollado Headquarters at Dear Co., Ltd. Photo by Gwangju Metropolitan City.

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Seon-gang] Gwangju Metropolitan City announced on the 23rd that it has signed a business agreement with shared service companies Dear Co., Ltd. and Korea Mobility Co., Ltd. to ensure the safe use of electric kickboards.

Through the agreement, the city and the companies decided to establish guidelines for parking and stopping personal mobility devices to ensure pedestrian safety and smooth road traffic flow.

Additionally, the companies will require users to take a final photo of the device parked when ending their ride and submit it. Users who repeatedly park in violation of the guidelines will face usage restrictions based on certain criteria.

The companies will ensure that when relocating devices, pedestrian safety and smooth road traffic flow are not hindered. They will also operate a complaint management system by displaying consultation phone numbers or QR codes on the devices for prompt handling of complaints arising during business operations.

Gwangju City and the companies will actively cooperate in establishing policies related to personal mobility devices, such as infrastructure development, safety management, and insurance product development. They will jointly conduct campaigns to improve usage culture for the proper establishment of personal mobility device use culture. Safety education will also be provided to students in elementary, middle, and high schools, as well as general users.

Previously, in November last year, Gwangju City signed business agreements with two kickboard sharing companies, G-Cooter and Ssingssing. On the 12th and 18th of this month, emergency meetings were held twice with four companies providing shared services?G-Cooter, Ssingssing, Dear, and Korea Mobility?and the electric kickboard departments of autonomous districts to discuss key issues such as preventing traffic accidents caused by electric kickboards, signing safety operation agreements, eradicating unauthorized abandonment, and installing parking lines on sidewalks.

The city plans to completely change the currently unmanaged kickboard usage culture by installing “electric kickboard parking zones” throughout the entire city.

It also plans to require shared service companies to actively promote notifying users in advance of the locations of electric kickboard parking zones to prevent accidents caused by unauthorized abandonment.

The city will receive GPS data from the companies on locations where kickboards have been left unattended or major return points. Based on this data, it will select areas for parking zone installation and notify the transportation and road management departments of autonomous districts. After confirming locations that do not obstruct pedestrian traffic and conducting legal reviews on sidewalk occupancy permits, the final parking zone installation locations will be determined.

Kim Jong-hyo, Deputy Mayor of Gwangju, said, “Electric kickboards, mainly used by young people for convenient mobility, have recently been operated frequently on roads, but unfortunately, the corresponding safety awareness and traffic culture have not followed. We expect that once infrastructure such as parking zones is established, citizens’ inconveniences caused by traffic accidents and unauthorized abandonment will be significantly alleviated.”

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