Gwangju City Declares Major Shift to a 'Green and Public Transportation-Centered City'

5 Major Strategies and 21 Core Tasks... Planned Investment of 16.4271 Trillion KRW

Aiming to Create a City Accessible by Subway, Bus, and Bicycle

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Yoon Jamin] Gwangju Metropolitan City has decided to radically reorganize its public transportation system over the next 20 years until 2040, transforming into a "public and green transportation-centered city."

The goal is to create an environment where urban rail, city buses, bicycles, personal mobility devices, and walking are interconnected, with particular priority given to bicycles and walking.

On the 12th, Gwangju City announced that it held a proclamation ceremony for the "2040 Gwangju Transportation Future Vision," which includes the future vision of Gwangju transportation and key promotion tasks for the next 20 years to realize a carbon-neutral city by 2045, at the Gwangju Transportation Information Center.

At the proclamation ceremony, Mayor Lee Yong-seop of Gwangju Metropolitan City declared a major shift to a "public and green transportation-centered city," and Kim Jae-sik, Director of the Transportation and Construction Bureau, presented the 2040 Gwangju Transportation Future Vision, goals, and key promotion tasks.

The event was attended by representatives from related organizations and groups, including Kim Yong-jip, Chairperson of the Gwangju City Council; Kim Tae-bong, Chairperson of the Gwangju Autonomous Police Committee; Kim Jun-cheol, Chief of Gwangju Police Agency; Yoon Jin-bo, President of Gwangju Urban Railway Corporation; Lee Geon-chun, Executive Director of Gwangju Bus Transport Association; Kim Jeong-min, Chairperson of Gwangju Green Mothers’ Association; and Park Nam-gyu, Chairperson of the Model Drivers’ Association. The event featured the reading of a declaration for achieving the transportation vision and a hand-picket performance.

The future goal of Gwangju transportation is to transform into a city where people can conveniently move without using private cars, utilizing subways, city buses, bicycles, and personal mobility devices.

To realize this, Gwangju City set the vision of "Fast, Safe, and Convenient Gwangju Transportation 5030," aiming for 50% of citizens to use public and green transportation and to achieve travel within major living zones in 30 minutes.

This aims to raise the current public transportation modal share, which remains at 27%, to 36% after the opening of Urban Rail Line 2, and to achieve a 50% public and green transportation modal share by 2040.

The city proposed five major strategies to realize the "2040 Gwangju Transportation Future Vision": ▲Creating a fast and convenient public transportation environment ▲Activating personal and green transportation ▲Making inter-regional access faster and more convenient ▲Establishing a people-first safe transportation environment ▲Expanding and transitioning to eco-friendly transportation means.

It also announced 21 key promotion tasks to achieve these five strategies. A total investment of 16.4271 trillion KRW is planned for these areas.

Last year, through the proclamation of the Gwangju-type AI-Green New Deal vision, the city declared the realization of a "2045 carbon-neutral energy self-reliant city, Gwangju," five years ahead of the central government. The city explained that bold reforms, changes, and innovations in the transportation sector are essential to practice carbon neutrality and the Gwangju-type Green New Deal, which led to the establishment of this future vision.

In particular, the opening of Urban Rail Line 2 in 2025 is expected to bring a major paradigm shift to Gwangju’s transportation system.

The 2040 Gwangju Transportation Future Vision is expected to serve as a foundation for Gwangju transportation by making Urban Rail Lines 1 and 2 the backbone of public transportation and completely reorganizing the city bus route system to ensure interconnection among urban rail, city buses, bicycles, personal mobility devices, and walking.

Mayor Lee said, "The proclamation of the 2040 Gwangju Transportation Future Vision will mark a turning point from the previous inefficient, high-cost, private car-centered transportation policy to a high-efficiency, low-cost public and green transportation-centered system," and added, "We will faithfully implement the key policies presented in the future vision to realize a public and green transportation-centered city."

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