‘Poscodero Pedestrian-Centered Street’ Created … Pohang City Establishes Safe and Pleasant Green Network

Improvement of Pedestrian Convenience and Revitalization of Surrounding Commercial Areas... Positive Effects on the Local Economy

Perspective view of the pedestrian-centered street to be developed on Posco-daero in the future.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Dongguk Lee] Pohang City will create the ‘POSCO-daero Pedestrian-Centered Street,’ connecting the railway forest and surrounding urban forests, and will actively promote the establishment of a green network to transform Pohang into a green and ecological city where people, nature, and culture harmonize, based on the Pohang Greenway this year.

The ‘Greenway Project’ has been underway since 2016 to transform Pohang, once a gray industrial city, into a sustainable green ecological city by integrating people and the city, ecology and culture, and industry and economy, leveraging Pohang’s geographical characteristics where the urban area, sea, and forest converge. It is a policy to expand green infrastructure consisting of three main axes: Central Greenway (urban), Ocean Greenway (marine), and Eco Greenway (forest).

Since 2009, the city has created a 9.3 km-long railway forest running north to south through 13 legal neighborhoods (ri) from Uhyeon-dong to Yeonil-eup Yugang-ri, receiving great responses from citizens and visitors nationwide. This has laid the foundation for a green network by creating a new urban culture through revitalizing surrounding commercial districts and promoting voluntary urban regeneration.

In addition, the city is accelerating efforts to create a walkable city and a safe pedestrian-centered street, moving away from vehicle-centered roads.

POSCO-daero (2 km), which runs east-west through the city center from Idong Overpass to O Square and Hyeongsan Rotary, is a wide road with 8 to 9 lanes filled with numerous vehicles, causing noise and exhaust problems. To improve this, the city plans to transform POSCO-daero into a pedestrian-centered street forest, establishing a green network connecting Pohang Railway Forest and Hyeongsan River, making the urban space more convenient for walking and cycling.

By transforming the vehicle-centered urban space into a pedestrian-centered space, it is expected to greatly contribute to improving the quality of life by providing citizens with safer and more pleasant living conditions. Positive effects are also anticipated in terms of urban regeneration, such as urban microclimate regulation through the creation of street forests and revitalization of surrounding commercial districts by securing floating populations within the city.

To create the pedestrian-centered street, the city will first conduct a pilot project from in front of the Bank of Korea and the Chamber of Commerce, securing safe walking spaces by cracking down on illegal parking on sidewalks and maintaining sidewalks.

To harmonize with various functional buildings such as shops, banks, and hospitals, the city plans to create a differentiated specialized street by planting plane trees with designed pruning, shade trees, and ground cover plants.

Along with this, after reviewing traffic impact assessments and traffic deliberations, the city will consider reducing one lane to one-way traffic and gradually create a pedestrian-centered street, expecting it to become a more pleasant and beautiful cultural space than previous successful cases such as Seoul Sejong-daero, Daegu Dongseong-ro, and Jeonju Cheotmajeung-gil.

Mayor Kang-deok Lee said, “To share a sustainable green culture with citizens, we will connect the city center, nature, and people, filling daily life with forests and gardens. By connecting Pohang Railway Forest and surrounding street forests to link the entire Pohang area into a green network, we will continuously create pedestrian-centered streets so that citizens can use them more safely and comfortably and utilize them as cultural spaces.”

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