Providing Life-Oriented Smart Transportation Services in Incheon Old Downtown... "Realizing Transportation Welfare"

Incheon City is taking steps to improve the poor traffic conditions in the old downtown areas by installing multifunctional smart intersections and adaptive signal control in the Jemulpo Renaissance District (covering Jung and Dong districts), Ganghwa County, and Ongjin County, as well as opening up signal information.

Incheon, boasting the largest area among metropolitan cities (total area 1,063.27㎢), is geographically located on the western side of the Seoul metropolitan area. While the east-west axis metropolitan road network is relatively well established, the metropolitan road networks in Ganghwa and Ongjin counties are very insufficient. According to an analysis of habitual congestion zones in Incheon, the service level (LOS: Level Of Service) in the habitually congested areas of Jung-gu and Dong-gu in Incheon is rated F, indicating an urgent need for traffic system improvements. Ganghwa and Ongjin (Yeongheungdo) also suffer from very poor public transportation and severe weekend traffic congestion.

The city has been steadily working to secure road and traffic infrastructure, but this requires enormous budgets and long periods, making it realistically difficult to solve variable and fluid traffic problems. Therefore, the city’s strategy is to focus on providing citizen-experienced services by establishing an intelligent transportation system.

Multifunctional smart intersections (20 units) and adaptive signal control systems (4 units) will be installed over approximately 358.49㎢ in the Jemulpo Renaissance District and Ganghwa and Ongjin counties. Traffic signal information will be opened to drivers at 30 locations, and infrastructure and traffic base information for digital twin implementation will be established.

Information collected through the multifunctional smart intersection system, such as vehicle numbers, traffic volume, congestion time and length, and congestion levels at each intersection, enables real-time traffic monitoring, which can improve traffic efficiency and safety. Additionally, adaptive left-turn signal control is expected to reduce unnecessary vehicle (left-turn) waiting times within the old downtown area, enhancing local residents’ perception of traffic circulation.

Considering the severe traffic congestion on Ganghwa-daero in Incheon, the city plans to install smart intersections mainly around Ganghwa County Office to analyze real-time traffic volume and derive optimal traffic signal timings based on artificial intelligence (AI) for pilot application. Along with this, various IT-based facilities will be introduced, such as providing intersection signal information within navigation systems to enhance driver safety and offering pedestrian signal status information during right turns.

An official from Incheon City stated, "We have introduced intelligent transportation system technology that can minimize malfunctions, considering the traffic issues in the old downtown area such as vehicle delay levels, queue-jumping violations, and stop line violations, especially since the target areas are distant." He added, "We will continuously improve Incheon’s traffic environment to provide universal mobility rights to citizens."