Gwangju City Councilor Park Mijeong Proposes Free City Bus Fares for Children and Adolescents

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Yoon Jamin] Park Mijeong, a member of the Gwangju Metropolitan City Council, proposed free city bus fares for children and adolescents.

According to the Gwangju City Council on the 9th, Councilor Park explained measures to restore local public transportation usage rates for a structural transition to a carbon-neutral city during the administrative audit of the Transportation and Construction Bureau that day.

Councilor Park stated, “With the financial support payments for the city bus quasi-public operation system increasing day by day, without fundamental changes in Gwangju’s transportation policy, the waste of citizens’ tax money will continue to rise,” and added, “A phased policy to restore usage rates through increasing usage among children and adolescents, the main users of public transportation, will be effective in the mid to long term.”

She also pointed out, “The reason the average daily number of city bus users in 2019 increased by 2.4% overall compared to 2018 was mainly due to a rise of 12.8% among adolescents and 17% among children,” and noted, “Since 2020, due to COVID-19 and school closures, even this decreased, causing financial support payments to increase to 122.3 billion won in 2021.”

She continued, “At a time when fundamental restructuring of public transportation policy is required for the transition to a future carbon-neutral city, promoting ‘free city bus fares for children and adolescents,’ the main users of public transportation, will lead to various public benefits including intangible policy effectiveness in the mid to long term in the era of climate crisis,” emphasizing the point.

Furthermore, she added, “Measures to increase public transportation usage in response to difficulties caused by COVID-19 and the climate crisis are global and national trends,” and expressed hope that the introduction of ‘free city bus fares for children and adolescents’ will be the first step in advancing transportation policy for the carbon-neutral city transition, which is a task of the times.”

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