In 2011, over 40 percent of Busan citizens will use the public transportation system and bicycles would be convenient to get around between areas.

The Busan Metropolitan City Office presented the ‘Public transportation scheme for 2011’ to the Council of Traffic policy on October 17. According to the plan, the rate of public transportation use is currently 38.9 percent and it will increase to 40.5 percent by 2011.

Busan will build ten transportation centers to connect with major cities and construct five metropolitan hubs to connect Busan and other nearby areas including Kim-hae, Jin-hae and Yang-san. To use the hubs as the central means of public transportation, the city will operate four express bus lines, expand eleven exclusive bus lanes on the highways, distribute backup facilities for buses, like the Red Zone, waiting facilities for passengers, and others.

Citizens will also take advantage of public transportation transit centers at seven locations of heavy traffic concentration, including Seo-myeon, Gupo, Nampo Dong, Centum City, Dong-rae, Sa-sang and Hadan, starting from 2007. The transit centers will be equipped with a transit parking lot, taxi shelter and bicycle depository. These are helpful places for the public to conveniently transfer from service to service.

Especially, Busan will expand bicycle paths, which are only 17.3 kilometers now, to 248.1 kilometers after 2008. And will increase bike parking spaces from 2,107 to 2,961. The plan is designed to remove pedestrian crossing curbs that block bicycles so that they will allow an easy commute to nearby streets. Moreover, the city will introduce fifty busses for the disabled and provide 1,431 natural gas busses to lessen environmental pollution.

On the other hand, car owners would face various restrictions. To suppress townsfolk using a car, the city will increase the car weekday system, introduce maximum parking, levy additional traffic fees and tolls for city congestion and introduce exclusive sections for public transportation, by stages, from 2007.

The city office will present the plan to the Ministry of Construction and Transportation after making a confirmation during November and an examination in December. A total of 267,100,000 won will be invested in this plan, using 928,500,000 won of national expenditures, 104,700,000 won of municipal expenses and 674,000,000 won of private capital.

입력시간: 2006. 10.18. 09:48