[Opinion] Do Not Walk or Run on the Escalator(?)

Roundtable Discussion on Data Economy Planning. Professor Shin Minsu. / Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

In May 2015, the government conducted a ‘Joint Campaign for Safe Use of Escalators’ to reduce elevator safety accidents. Data from that time clearly showed that about 70% of the 70 major elevator accidents in 2014 occurred on escalators, highlighting the need to strengthen education and publicity on this issue. The campaign also promoted the message ‘Do not walk or run on escalators.’ Although subway announcements were made, people walking or running on subway escalators are still frequently seen. In fact, most escalator users stand in a single line on the right side, making it easy to walk or run. Why do people continue to walk or run despite warnings? Why do users stand on one side? What causes this phenomenon? Is it because the promotional message is designed from the provider’s perspective rather than the user’s? Is it because the campaign is realistically ineffective? Or is it because there are no moral or criminal consequences for not following it?

Policy consists of policy goals and policy means. Implementation is the process of realizing these. Implementation is the process of executing authoritative directives. The significance of implementation in the policy process lies in the realization of policy intentions, the concrete determination of substantive policy content, and government activities directly related to citizens’ lives. As the importance of implementation is emphasized, the acceptance of policies?such as compliance and noncompliance closely related to implementation?also becomes important. A policy cannot be considered successful if there is no change in the external behavior of the policy target. It is also important to accompany changes in internal awareness, as behavior is modified to align with explicit or implicit norms. Failure to induce such changes leads to various levels and forms of resistance to implementation.

Conflict is an inevitable social product arising from changes and trends in the times. Given the nature of government policies, which must encompass and coordinate the interests of diverse social members, public conflict is even harder to avoid. Therefore, while recognizing conflict as an inevitable social product, efforts are needed to minimize it and reduce social costs to increase policy acceptance. To this end, systematic efforts must be made during the policy design process to maintain consistency between policy goals and policy means. Effective policy design requires a high level of policy content, accompanied by trust in policy institutions and understanding from the policy target groups. Public discourse serves as a connecting link in this process. It is important to recognize during public discourse that seemingly trivial social situations can have a tremendous impact on people’s behavior, and that nudges have a very significant influence on our decisions. Accordingly, an appropriate public discourse process and participatory decision-making process become key factors in enhancing policy acceptance.

Recently, alongside pension reform and urban redevelopment projects, proposals have been made in the broadcasting and telecommunications sectors as part of policies to resolve public conflicts, including digital platform policies and telecommunication fee policies. To increase the acceptance of these policies, a deep understanding of the policy demand groups must be accompanied by efforts to find a balance between innovation and fairness. Additionally, a joint fact-finding process is necessary to overcome the irrational biases held by both policy demand groups and policymakers. It is hoped that social integration and development will be achieved through policy design that can enhance policy acceptance.

Shin Minsu, Professor, Department of Business Administration, Hanyang University