Seoul City to Establish Bus-Only Lane Next Month from Gaehwa to Gimpo Airport

Seoul City announced on the 26th that it will implement a 'Traffic Operation Improvement Plan,' including the installation of curbside bus-only lanes, to alleviate congestion on the Gimpo Gold Line.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

The core of this plan is to promptly install curbside bus-only lanes along the Gaehwa to Gimpo Airport section by the end of May, enabling buses, which serve as an alternative to the Gimpo Gold Line, to operate smoothly. The plan includes ▲ installation of bus-only lanes by May ▲ cooperation to increase the number of buses and improve congestion at bus stops ▲ road expansion on the Seoul entry section ▲ signal operation improvements ▲ crackdown on illegal parking and stopping.

Seoul City will simultaneously implement short- and medium-term measures to enhance the effectiveness of bus-only lane operations and will continuously monitor traffic flow.

The short-term measures aim primarily to install bus-only lanes by May and to induce demand dispersion from the Gimpo Gold Line to buses. This includes installing time-based curbside bus-only lanes from Gaehwa to Gimpo Airport Station, cooperating to increase bus frequency and improve congestion at bus stops, expanding roads on the city boundary section toward Seoul, improving traffic flow through signal operation enhancements, improving intersection operations, and cracking down on illegal parking and stopping.

The medium-term measures aim to improve vehicle flow through a comprehensive review of the overall road axis system. This involves starting a comprehensive inspection of the Gaehwa-dong road axis traffic system and reviewing operational improvement plans.

Seoul City has decided to install the most urgent curbside bus-only lanes on the Gaehwa to Gimpo Airport section in the shortest possible time. It will also actively cooperate with Gyeonggi Province and Gimpo City in discussions to increase the number of buses.

Additionally, Seoul will add lanes (from 2 to 3 lanes) on the entry section into the city and install a right-turn lane toward Olympic-daero to create a smooth bus transit environment. Upon completion of the construction, the travel time through the intersection from Gaehwa Bridge to the southern end of Haengju Bridge is expected to be reduced by more than half, from about 8 minutes.

The medium-term measures will assess the traffic conditions changed by the implementation of bus-only lanes and move beyond point-based improvements to establish plans for traffic flow and safety across the entire road axis. To this end, adjustments to lanes throughout the entire section, bottleneck improvements, and reinforcement of safety facilities around crosswalks and bus stops will be pursued.

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