Realizing People-Centered Eco-Friendly Green Transportation

Bae Min-han, director of the Suwon City Transportation Safety Division, said on the 28th, "As Suwon City enters the fifth term of civilian-led government, we have pledged to abandon concrete-focused administration centered on construction and development and to establish eco-friendly urban regeneration administration," and added, "To this end, we will transform the city overflowing with automobiles into a people-centered transportation system and develop it into an eco-friendly green transportation city centered on people."

Suwon City is on the verge of entering a full-scale subway era. Following the connection of the extended Bundang Line to Mangpo Station at the end of last year, it will be connected to Suwon Station by the end of this year. The Suwon-Incheon Line connecting Suwon and Incheon will open by 2015, the Shinbundang Line connecting Jungja Station in Seongnam through Gwanggyo to Homaesilwill open by 2019, and the Metro Line 4 linking Induk-won and Suwon is also scheduled to open in 2019. The transportation system will shift from car-centered to subway-centered.

With the opening of the Suwon subway era, a comprehensive public transportation information system for buses, subways, and railways will be established. As the subway opening changes the public transportation environment including bus route changes, the city plans to minimize inconvenience to citizens by establishing information systems at 20 subway and railway stations providing bus arrival information, routes, and transfer information.

Sungkyunkwan University Station will be developed as a complex station. It will be developed at a scale of 2 basement levels and 4 above-ground stories, including various convenience facilities and taxi, bus, and bicycle transfer facilities.

A large-scale transfer center will be built to ease traffic congestion around Suwon Station. The transfer center, with 64.9 billion won invested in the Seo-dun-dong area, Gwonseon-gu, west of Suwon Station (location 296-3, Seo-dun-dong), will be developed at 1 basement level and 2 above-ground stories with a total floor area of 23,377 square meters, allowing free access to all public transportation modes passing through Suwon Station including the Bundang Line and Suwon-Incheon Line subways, Gyeongbu Line trains, KTX, taxis, and buses.

Connection roads will be opened as the transfer center is built. Roads will be constructed in the Seo-dun-dong and Pyeong-dong areas at a length of 1.2 kilometers and width of 5-11 meters, with one underpass and one bridge each.

A public transportation-exclusive district will be introduced around the Suwon Station~Jangan Gate area. The city plans to develop the congested old downtown area suffering from traffic congestion and air pollution into a walkable, people-centered street to revitalize the local economy and develop it as a cultural tourism resource.

An empathy and communication bulletin board will be operated to resolve inconveniences in public transportation for citizens. When citizens raise inconveniences such as stops without stopping, failure to operate, or poor service while using public transportation through various channels including the city hall website, the empathy and communication bulletin board allows passengers, transportation operators, and relevant public officials to check and handle them together.

Safe taxis will emerge for citizens' safe return home. When a citizen dispatches a safe taxi through a call center and recognizes the QR code attached to the taxi with a smartphone, vehicle information and location information are automatically transmitted to the guardian. The city plans to operate 500 vehicles at one call center on a pilot basis and will gradually expand based on results.

A Green Transportation Center will be built to create rest spaces for transportation workers. At a scale of 1 basement level and 4 above-ground stories, it will include rest areas, convenience stores, restaurants, training centers, and lost-and-found facilities.

Various measures will be implemented to address the growing parking problem for automobiles. To resolve chronic parking shortages in residential areas, public parking lots will be created, and green parking villages, providing personal parking lots, and resident priority parking systems will be expanded.

The Haenggung-dong area, where the Eco-Traffic Festival is held, will be filled with eco-friendly green transportation facilities. In the section from Paldal Gate to Jangan Gate, bicycle convenience facilities such as bicycle crossing will be installed. Bicycle storage racks, maintenance centers, exhibition and experience centers will be installed, and public (rental) bicycles will be operated.

To make bicycle use convenient, curbs at crosswalks will be lowered, sidewalks will be repaired, and bicycle exclusive lane signs, nearby road guide signs, and pilot project area guide signs will be installed.

An integrated disaster prevention management system for underground underpasses will be established to prevent underground facility flooding on roads during localized heavy rain. Remote control systems for pump facilities will be installed at 17 underground underpasses within the city, and CCTVs will be installed to monitor flooding and equipment operation status.

An overpass running through the Gyeongbu Line railroad that is a key road connecting the east and west areas of Suwon will be extended by 860 meters. It is expected to have significant effects on alleviating traffic congestion, promoting balanced development between east and west areas, and developing areas around subway stations.

The road between the Imok Underpass and Imok Middle School will be expanded to a width of 20 meters. With middle and high schools and Hae-u-jae nearby, commuting students and visitors have experienced significant inconvenience due to the narrow road; widening the road substantially will resolve a long-standing wish of local residents.

The Suwon Station underground shopping mall will undergo major renovation. The underground shopping mall, first established in 1981, has experienced accident risks and user inconvenience due to facility aging. A detailed safety assessment will be conducted, and based on the results, aging electrical facilities will be repaired and capacity will be greatly increased.

Noise reduction projects will be implemented on 7 elevated highways within the city including Babbat Elevated Highway, Uman Elevated Highway, and Yeongtong Elevated Highway.

Design value engineering (VE) will be continuously implemented to reduce construction costs. For various construction projects, design VE will be conducted with specialists in civil engineering, architecture, electricity, and landscaping, and a design consulting committee will be operated to prevent construction defects and reduce budgets.

Bicycle infrastructure will be built on a 6-kilometer section from Jiji Daegogae to Sungkyunkwan University Station. 100 bicycle crossings will be installed, 50 bicycle storage racks and 100 air pumps will be installed.