Geumcheon-gu installs ground traffic lights and yellow carpets... Transforming into a safe school route for children

Improvement of Traffic Safety Facilities in Elementary School Child Protection Zones and Surrounding Donghak-ro
Driver Attention Induced to Slow Down with Facilities such as Ground Traffic Lights and Yellow Crosswalks

Geumcheon-gu (Mayor Yu Seong-hoon) announced that it has completed the "Child Protection Zone Improvement Project" by investing a total of 2.7 billion KRW to prevent traffic accidents involving children on school routes.

In 2020, the "Min-sik Act" (amendments to the Road Traffic Act and the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes), which strengthens penalties for drivers causing traffic accidents in school zone child protection areas, was enacted. Nevertheless, traffic accidents within child protection zones continue to occur.

Accordingly, from May to December 2023, the district carried out a large-scale improvement of traffic safety facilities to enhance the child protection environment. The project targeted 18 elementary school child protection zones and surrounding school routes within the area.

Before implementing the project, from March to June 2023, the district actively collected and reviewed opinions from local residents and reflected them in the project. Additionally, two rounds of comprehensive surveys of elementary school child protection zones were conducted to ensure the project was carried out thoroughly.

In the first internal field survey, the maintenance status of facilities was investigated, and the project sites and necessary budgets were identified and secured. In the second phase, a joint expert investigation was conducted with Seoul City, Geumcheon Police Station, Southern Education Support Office, and Korea Road Facility Safety Association to identify blind spots in school route traffic and improvement measures, and the project was promoted accordingly.

The district focused on significantly improving the visibility of facilities to make it easy to recognize child protection zones through this project. To alert drivers and induce speed reduction, the following were installed: ▲ yellow crosswalks ▲ yellow carpets ▲ luminous traffic signs ▲ speed and illegal parking enforcement cameras. For pedestrian convenience and safety, the following safety facilities were installed: ▲ ground traffic lights ▲ audio guidance devices for traffic lights ▲ anti-attachment facilities for advertisements around traffic lights ▲ anti-slip road pavement ▲ safety fences.

Additionally, the district plans to install more safety facilities such as audio assistance devices for pedestrian traffic lights and safety guidance boards. In coordination with Seoul City and related agencies, the project budget will be secured sequentially to continue installing traffic safety facilities.

Yu Seong-hoon, Mayor of Geumcheon-gu, stated, "We will continuously expand facilities to prevent child traffic accidents and improve the walking environment," and added, "Drivers should also strictly comply with traffic regulations and drive safely within child protection zones."

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