Speed Limits Raised to 60 km/h on 35 Nationwide Sections… Police Cite "Consideration of Citizen Inconvenience"

Based on Road Traffic Act Enforcement Rules and Council Manual
Adjustment promoted since last November... First implementation in Seoul
"Not a repeal of the 5030 policy... Planned before the Transition Committee"

A 'Safe Speed 5030' sign is installed on the roads in Seoul city. Photo by Moon Honam munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporter Seongpil Cho] On the 24th, it was reported that the police raised the speed limits to 60 km/h on some roads nationwide, considering citizen inconvenience and actual road conditions.

The National Police Agency announced that it raised the speed limits from 50 km/h to 60 km/h on 35 sections nationwide, including 17 sections of Han River bridges in Seoul. A police official explained, "Since the implementation of the 'Safe Speed 5030' policy, we have received numerous complaints from citizens about inconvenience," adding, "While maintaining the basic framework of 5030, we are flexibly adjusting speed limits on sections with less correlation to pedestrian safety."

Previously, since April last year, the National Police Agency has been fully enforcing the 'Safe Speed 5030' policy nationwide, which limits the maximum speed on urban general roads?excluding highways and motorways?to 50 km/h, and limits speed in protection zones and residential back roads to 30 km/h. Urban general roads refer to sections with surrounding buildings, many intersections, and crosswalks. In other words, the policy aims to reduce vehicle speeds passing through downtown areas to ensure pedestrian safety and reduce traffic accident fatalities.

However, since November last year, based on Article 19 of the Road Traffic Act Enforcement Rules and the '5030 Design and Operation Manual' from the government-wide 5030 council, the police have been sequentially raising speed limits on sections with no buildings nearby and fewer intersections and crosswalks. As part of this, in March this year, speed limits were first raised to 60 km/h on 20 sections in Seoul, including 17 sections of Han River bridges.

Regarding criticisms from the Yoon Seok-yeol presidential transition team calling the 'Safe Speed 5030' policy 'inefficient' and concerns that the government might be scaling back the policy to appease the administration, the National Police Agency completely denied such claims. A police official stated, "Plans to raise speed limits on sections less related to pedestrian safety existed since last year, before the formation of the transition team." Yoon Hee-geun, Commissioner of the National Police Agency, also said, "This reflects public opinion that the policy does not match actual road conditions," adding, "It is a modification, not a repeal of the policy."

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