<em>Expressway Bus-Only Lanes: Weekday Extension on Gyeongbu Line and Weekend Discontinuation on Yeongdong Line</em>

by Roh Kyungjo

Published 06 Mar.2024 12:00(KST)

The dedicated bus lane section on the highway will be extended to Anseong Interchange (a total of 56.0 km) on the weekday Gyeongbu Line, and the weekend Yeongdong Line section will be abolished.

Adjustment of Expressway Bus-Only Lane Sections / Image provided by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and the National Police Agency announced on the 6th that they will give an administrative notice of the revision of the highway announcement containing this content starting from the 7th. After going through related procedures, they plan to finalize it and coordinate with the Korea Expressway Corporation, which is responsible for guidance signs and lane repainting, to implement it.

Currently, the dedicated bus lanes on highways operate on the Gyeongbu Line from Yangjae Interchange to Osan Interchange (39.7 km) on weekdays, and from Yangjae Interchange to Sintanjin Interchange (134.1 km) on Saturdays and holidays. The Yeongdong Line section corresponds to the Singal Junction to Hobup Junction (26.9 km) section.

The weekday Gyeongbu Line dedicated bus lane has been in operation since October 2008 to solve traffic problems in the southern metropolitan area. Recently, as the use of commuter buses has increased to the southern Gyeonggi, Sejong, and Chungcheong areas, the need for expansion has been raised.

On the other hand, the Yeongdong Line (Singal to Yeoju), where the dedicated bus lane was implemented in August 2017 for the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, has faced criticism for worsening congestion in general lanes. Although some sections (Hobup to Yeoju) were excluded since February 2021, complaints have reached about 3,000 cases over the past three years.

Accordingly, the National Police Agency formed a consultative body consisting of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, the Korea Expressway Corporation, bus organizations, and civic groups to discuss improvement measures based on bus traffic volume and complaint status. Looking at the traffic volume ratio of general vehicles and buses over the past six years, the Gyeongbu Line mostly met the criteria for installing dedicated bus lanes up to Anseong Interchange, but the existing Yeongdong Line section did not, they stated.

Regarding this revision, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and the National Police Agency said, "We sought ways to activate public transportation while minimizing inconvenience to the public," and added, "We will regularize the public-private consultative body in the future to periodically analyze the effectiveness of dedicated bus lanes, including changes in traffic volume, and find reasonable operation plans."