Traffic Congestion in Gyeonggi Province Worsens Rather Than Improves

Over the past 10 years, roads in Gyeonggi Province have increased modestly while vehicles have surged exponentially, intensifying traffic congestion.

According to Gyeonggi Province on the 30th, the total road length in the Gyeonggi region last year was 13,476 kilometers, an increase of 33%, or 3,329 kilometers, compared to 10,147 kilometers in 1996, ten years prior.

In contrast, vehicles during the same period surged from 1.81 million to 3.5 million units—an increase of 1.69 million vehicles, or 93%—while the population also grew by 2.66 million (reaching 10.85 million at the end of last year).

Furthermore, urban development that took place within a 20-kilometer radius of Seoul until the 1980s expanded to a 30-kilometer radius in the 1990s with the construction of five new cities including Ilsan and Bundang, and has recently expanded further to a 40-50 kilometer radius encompassing areas like Hwaseong and Pyeongtaek.

Along with the increase in passenger vehicles, the share of transportation by private cars rose from 40.6% in 1997 to 45.8% in 2004, an increase of 4.2 percentage points, while buses fell from 33.8% to 33%, a decline of 0.8 percentage points; subway and rail declined from 7.4% to 6.1%, a decrease of 1.3 percentage points; and taxis fell from 8.2% to 7.6%, a decline of 0.6 percentage points.

As a result, traffic congestion in the Seoul metropolitan area has intensified further, and as of 2004, the traffic congestion cost in the Seoul metropolitan area reached 11.9658 trillion won, accounting for 52% of the nation's total traffic congestion cost of 23 trillion won.

Additionally, the traffic congestion cost within Gyeonggi Province itself is estimated to reach 4.5884 trillion won, representing 20% of the national total, making the construction of a railway network and the Second and Third Outer Ring Roads all the more pressing.

In response, a provincial official stated, "To resolve traffic congestion in the Seoul metropolitan area, we are currently prioritizing traffic congestion mitigation as the top policy initiative of the 4th popularly elected provincial government, with early construction of seven north-south axes and four east-west axes, the Seoul metropolitan area's Second Outer Ring Road, and large-scale expansion of metropolitan railway networks including subways."