Connections Transport & ICT 96256 Korea’s Leap Forward in Green Transport Changgi Lee, Nak Moon Sung, Sang Dae Choi, Eun Joo Allison Yi, and Sangjoo Lee Megacities in developing countries suffer from serious 60 traffic congestion, high levels of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and heavy air pollution. These urban areas face a stark dilemma: economic expansion attracts % more people and vehicles; but the resulting traffic and pollution hinder further growth while reducing the quality of life for their citizens. Not long ago, Seoul The share of all passenger faced a similar conundrum. Choked with pollution and trips in Seoul taken on traffic jams, it changed course and helped Korea make metro or bus a historic transition to green urban transport. It shifted from supply-side policies focused on expanding roadways and metro lines to green demand-side policies focused on creating transit-oriented cities. Today, Seoul boasts a passenger-trip share for metro and bus of more than 60%. Energy consumption in Korea’s road sector is lower than in other countries with similar GDP. Congestion costs have been decreasing, and CO2 emissions in the transport sector have been kept under control. This pathbreaking transition was founded on multimodal solutions integrated by information and communication technology (ICT) in a context of strong political leadership and public financing. From 1980 to 2010, the total length of all roads in Seoul had been expanding its metro transit network Korea more than doubled, and the length of paved throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, but most of roads increased 540%. By 2000, the road density in the rise in metro ridership came from former bus rid- Seoul (12.9 km/km2) was three to four times greater ers rather than passenger car drivers. In those years, than in Beijing or Shanghai. From 1980 to 1997, esti- almost half of the city’s 103 bus companies shut down. mated congestion costs in Korea quadrupled, to 18.5 After a 2002 expansion of the metro network, auto- trillion won, or 3.6% of GDP, with Seoul accounting mobile passenger trips and metro ridership were both for one-fourth of the costs. Air pollution from road higher than in 1996, while bus ridership was lower. traffic cost an estimated $13.3 billion in 2006. A comprehensive reform in 2004 began a dra- The reliance on supply-oriented transportation matic reversal in the trend. The new strategy drew policies began to lose its appeal, but the path to people out of their cars and into public transport better transit and less congested roads was not by modernizing and expanding the bus system and straightforward. integrating it with both metro and a new system of feeder buses. APRIL 2015 NOTE 15 Multimodal Transport Solutions port model and currently accounts for about 10% of the country’s public transit ridership. The reform in Seoul introduced distance-based fares and free transfers between buses and between bus The role of ICT was crucial for the transportation and metro. The city rearranged bus routes to broad- smart card (T-card), which had a catalytic role in en passenger access, built bus rapid transit (BRT) the success of the reform. By allowing a distance- lanes and transit centers for faster and more reliable based fare system employing free transfers, it service, and introduced shuttle buses connecting brought passengers to buses. Each major city now remote locations to the main system. operates a transportation information system that includes GPS tracking of its buses. Travelers use The new multimodal system was supported by the information to guide their trips, government innovative ICT that enabled rechargeable trans- uses it to evaluate its transport operations, and bus port cards to work with distance-based fares and associations and the smart card company use it to provided real-time route and schedule information distribute revenue according to distance traveled. to travelers. Vision, Political Will, and Financial Support Transfers became more convenient; the speed and The reform was the type of high-risk, high-return reliability of bus service improved; and bus-related project that brings immediate opposition. In Seoul, accidents and injuries declined by about 25% just green reform of the public transport system was one year after the reform. Seoul saw a continuous one of the major pledges of the then-mayor, who increase in the number of subway, surface rail, and was able to get political support from both the gov- bus passengers and a drop in the use of cars. The ernment and citizens. Overall, the initial construc- rechargeable transport card has now become a tion and preparation costs for Seoul’s revamped bus virtually nationwide fare system, and cities continue network probably amounted to about $100 million. to make innovative strides in their transit networks. Seoul’s government spends about $200 million per year to cover the operating losses of the bus sys- Key Policies tem, which translates to about $20 per person. Seoul’s shift to green transport had four fundamen- tal characteristics: (1) multimodalism, (2) use of ICT Lessons and New Challenges to integrate the modes, (3) vision and political will, By the early 2000s, Korean transport policy had and (4) financial support. These elements also de- reached a dead end, unable to stop the rise of high- fined green transport policies that spread to other way congestion. The solution began in Seoul, which parts of the country. upgraded and revived the bus system with BRT Multimodalism and ICT and neighborhood feeder routes and linked it to rail with ICT. The result was an integrated urban, and Key elements of multimodalism are land devel- ultimately national, mass transit system that could opment centered around new or existing transit stem the rise of automobile use. stations that also become commercial and cultural hubs; a distance-based, free transfer fare system; Korea succeeded so well that it has stabilized en- and a community shuttle-bus system. The system ergy consumption per capita in the road sector. In of free transfers and distance-based fares was a 2010, Korea took aim at a new 10-year goal with its pivotal achievement, making each transport mode green transport master plan: reduce GHG emissions a branch of the overall integrated system. The by one-third while maintaining its competitiveness. community shuttle bus system connects the more remote neighborhoods with metro stations or For more information on this topic: major bus stations under the same fare and transfer Korea Green Growth Partnership: system; it is a major element of Korea’s green trans- http://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/sustainabledevelopment/ brief/korea-green-growth-partnership Connections is a weekly series of knowledge notes from the World Bank Group’s Transport & Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Global Practice. Covering projects, experiences, and front-line developments, the series is produced by Nancy Vandycke, Shokraneh Minovi, and Adam Diehl and edited by Gregg Forte. The notes are available at http://www.worldbank.org/transport/connections APRIL 2015 NOTE 15