‘Imyeondoro Improvement Project’ Delayed Due to Opposition from Some Residents Faces Difficulties

Illegal Parking Rampant on Road Between Gwangju Seo-gu Ssangchon Siyoung and Hwajeong-dong Moa Town

Frequent Passage of Disabled and Elderly in the Middle of the Road... "Pedestrian Rights Must Be Guaranteed"

An elderly person is walking in the middle of a side road at the boundary between Ssangchon-dong and Hwajeong-dong in Seo-gu, Gwangju Metropolitan City, due to illegally parked cars. This area has a large population of elderly and disabled people, and the district office planned a road improvement project to address this issue, but progress has stalled due to opposition from some residents.

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Yoon Jamin] Despite the fact that a side street in the downtown area of Seo-gu, Gwangju Metropolitan City is prone to traffic accidents involving vulnerable road users, the differences in opinion among residents have not been resolved, and there seems to be no solution in sight.

Although there is a high volume of traffic from vulnerable groups such as the disabled and elderly, there are no sidewalks to be found, and illegal parking on both sides of the road makes safe walking impossible, so improvement projects are urgently needed but are facing difficulties.

On the afternoon of the 26th, around 1 p.m., the side street between Ssangchon Siyoung Apartment and Hwajeong-dong Moa Town Apartment in Seo-gu.

This road, about 8 meters wide and 150 meters long, has a white solid line on one side where parking and stopping are allowed, and a yellow solid line on the opposite side where parking and stopping are prohibited, so parking was only allowed on one side.

However, even though the parking and stopping allowed time from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. permitted by Gwangju City had passed, this place was full of vehicles parked on both sides. Although it was a momentary scene, it did not look like something done just once or twice.

Because of this situation, it was impossible for vehicles to pass each other in both directions, and pedestrians also appeared to be in danger.

Within a short time, two vehicles parked on the yellow solid line left, only to be naturally replaced as if waiting for the opportunity.

The bigger problem is that this area has many households with disabled people. According to nearby residents, disabled people using wheelchairs or elderly people relying on strollers have no choice but to move to the middle of the road to avoid parked vehicles, causing car horns to sound frequently.

In Sangmu 2-dong, out of a total of 12,425 households and 24,094 people, the number of disabled people is 1,794, accounting for 7.4% of the total population of the neighborhood.

In particular, one apartment near this road has 545 disabled people out of a total of 1,805 residents, reaching a disabled population ratio of 29.4%.

Nearby residents have been voicing their demands for safe walking rights here for several years, but the "road improvement" has been delayed indefinitely.

Seo-gu asked the police for their opinion in June last year to create sidewalks and designate a one-way street here, and received a response that one-way designation was possible.

In July of the same year, a residents' public hearing was held, but some residents opposed it. They argued that if designated as a one-way street, the passage to one apartment would be limited to one route, making traffic congestion inevitable.

Afterwards, Seo-gu listened to residents' opinions regarding the construction of new sidewalks, but the project has been delayed as the differences in residents' positions have not been resolved.

A Seo-gu official said, "The project budget has been secured to install no-parking guide posts and create sidewalks," and added, "We will do our best to reach an agreement among residents and create a safe road."