Gwangsan District Residents in Gwangju Draw Attention with 'Public Forum' to Solve Electric Scooter Issues

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Yoon Jamin] “Unique safety helmets, is this plan feasible to implement?”, “How about giving benefits to those who safely follow the regulations?”

Residents of Gwangsan-gu, Gwangju Metropolitan City recently held a public forum to find solutions to the electric scooter issue, which has become a social hot topic, drawing attention by proposing policies.

Gwangsan-gu (Mayor Park Byung-gyu) announced on the 21st that it recently conducted ‘Gwangsan Autonomous Agora,’ a resident public forum aimed at driving local change through citizen power.

The starting point was the stories of about 1,000 Gwangsan citizens who pondered solutions to various social problems.

From the residents' general meetings in 21 neighborhoods of Gwangsan-gu, the three topics that garnered the most citizen interest?▲climate crisis response ▲pets ▲electric scooters?were selected, and since October, the resident public forum ‘42 Gwangsan’ has been held.

Among a total of 256 teams and 1,060 participants, the electric scooter issue, addressed by the largest group of 114 teams (456 people), was chosen as the representative agenda, and the Autonomous Agora was organized as a deliberative space to develop discussions.

About 100 citizens including residents, youth, young adults, and people with disabilities participated in Gwangsan Autonomous Agora, dividing into four groups by themes: ▲parking ▲safety ▲enforcement ▲education. They engaged in heated debates on the causes of the problem, reasons why existing measures have not been properly implemented, and better alternatives.

At each sub-topic discussion table, Gwangsan-gu’s ‘Public Forum Coordinators’ and experts were assigned to support efficient progress.

After intense discussions lasting over an hour, each group presented their ‘final proposals.’ Fresh ideas caught attention, such as making the scooter operate only when a safety helmet is worn like a treadmill safety pin (safety), mandatory safety education upon registration (education), and solving the abandoned scooter problem by linking it with senior citizen jobs (parking).

There was a strong call for establishing cooperative relationships with electric scooter companies.

Resident Kim Hak-jong from Suwan-dong said, “Electric scooters have been steadily raised as a village agenda,” adding, “I hope a safe model will be created through a consultative and cooperative relationship among local governments, companies, and citizens.”

The opinions gathered from citizens through this Autonomous Agora will be compiled into a policy proposal after expert consulting. Gwangsan-gu plans to actively consider reflecting the proposal in actual policy once it is submitted.

Park Byung-gyu, Mayor of Gwangsan-gu, stated, “To resolve various conflicts and problems in our society and create a better community, efforts to solve issues in a way beneficial to all through social dialogue and consensus are most important,” and added, “We will support the special public forum conducted by Gwangsan citizens to continue actively in the future.”

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