Seoul, Created 20 Road Diet Places

As part of the “Walking City, Seoul” project, the Seoul Metropolitan Government has launched the Road Diet Campaign in daily life from the beginning of this year to create a comfortable and safe walking space on a 6,892m street.

The ‘Road Diet’ project is the first project to be implemented this year, which means reducing vehicle space and converting it into a pedestrian-oriented road space.

The city built a collaborative system with the autonomous regions earlier this year in order to proactively promote the road diet project and improve the citizens’ feeling, found 20 places in 19 autonomous districts, and conducted the project of Road Diet in daily life.

Based on the opinion of the autonomous district and the opinions of the local residents, Seoul reviewed the project costs and feasibility of each branch and provided a total budget of 8.13 billion won. Basically, it focused on creating a safe walking environment in situations where safety is threatened, for example, when pedestrians had to walk on the car road because there is no pedestrian road or the road is too narrow, through the installation of crossroads and CCTV cameras for pedestrian safety, based on the reduction of the car road and establishment of the pedestrian road.

Noksapyeong-daero 26-gil, Yongsan-gu. Before the improvement → after the improvement

While carrying out the project, there were some differences in opinions with the local residents, but the city actively reflected the opinions of the local residents through various measures such as the residents briefing. Seventeen sites will be completed this year as scheduled, and three sites (Jung-gu, Eunpyeong-gu and Seongbuk-gu) that are not yet completed will be completed in the first half of 2017.
On the 220m sections of Noksapyeong-daero 26-gil, Yongsan-gu, the pedestrian road was expanded (1.5→3.2 – 4.0m) and the car road was reduced (10.8 – 11.3m→7.0m). The speed limit will be drastically reduced from 60 km / h to 30 km / h for safety. It is expected the demand for Itaewon tourism will increase by creating the antique furniture street..

Nowon-ro 1ga-gil, Nowon-gu. Before the improvement → after the improvement

On Nowon-ro 1ga-gil, Gongneung-dong, Nowon-gu, the sidewalk width of the 130m section of Taereung Elementary School has expanded from 2.5 to 3.7m. This was done to improve the safety of school students and to make pedestrians comfortable by providing green space and rest facilities.

In the early stage of the Road Diet in Daily Life project, there were many concerns and opposition citing the lack of parking space and the increase in traffic jam. However, the residents’ satisfaction of the walking environment increased, which is improved after the project..