Busan City Accelerates Efforts to Become the Nation's Top Public Transportation-Friendly City

March Announcement of the ‘Busan-style Public Transportation Innovation Plan’

Busan City has taken the first step toward becoming the nation's top public transportation-friendly city.

Since announcing the Busan-style public transportation innovation plan last March, the city has allocated approximately 44 billion KRW in the first supplementary budget proposal of this year for the 'Busan-style public transportation innovation.'

Busan City Hall.

The projects included in this supplementary budget proposal have been steadily discussed since November last year by the 'Mobility Innovation Working Group,' composed mainly of experts from various fields and civic groups. Among them, the 'Integrated Public Transportation Discount System,' which accounts for the largest portion, was reviewed by the Busan Development Institute and found to increase public transportation usage and modal share.

The 'Integrated Public Transportation Discount System,' which refunds the amount exceeding 45,000 KRW (up to 45,000 KRW) spent on public transportation, has attracted significant public interest even before its implementation, as it is a system designed to support low-income citizens amid recent public utility fee hikes and high inflation impacting the economy of ordinary people.

The 'Free Public Transportation Fare for Children' has also drawn attention from parents and citizens. If children holding transportation cards for children can use public transportation free of charge, it will reduce household transportation expenses and help children, who will be the main users of public transportation in the future, to easily access and become familiar with public transportation early on. This will promote public transportation usage, create a child-friendly city conducive to raising children, improve quality of life, and contribute to increasing the birth rate.

Due to Busan's geographical characteristics, many areas remain vulnerable in terms of public transportation. To improve mobility in these vulnerable areas, the city plans to introduce 'Demand-Responsive Transport (DRT),' which operates according to passenger demand. Busan has been selected as a final winner in a Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism public contest, securing 790 million KRW in national funding. Before full-scale implementation, a pilot operation will be conducted in the second half of this year in the Gijang-gun Osiria Tourist Complex, connecting major tourist spots such as Haedong Yonggungsa Temple and Gijang Market in the form of a tourism DRT to minimize trial and error.

Through the tourism DRT, regional tourism transportation is expected to improve, diversifying tourist visit areas and revitalizing local tourism. In particular, with free public transportation fares for children nationwide holding children’s transportation cards, family travelers using public transportation are expected to increase, contributing to the revitalization of Busan’s domestic tourism.

Additionally, to address issues such as increased intervals between city buses and longer operating distances and to enhance the efficiency of city bus routes, the city is preparing a 'Big Data-based City Bus Route Reorganization.' A city bus route adjustment service will begin in the second half of this year, and based on the results, a comprehensive city bus route reorganization is planned for 2025.

Through route reorganization, the city aims to reduce the budget for the quasi-public city bus system and diversify connecting means such as village buses and DRT to prevent service gaps during route changes, enabling citizens to conveniently use public transportation without relying on private cars.

Mayor Park Hyung-jun stated, “In economically difficult times, we will reduce the transportation cost burden for citizens who use public transportation as their main mode of travel and create conditions that allow citizens to conveniently move throughout Busan. We will communicate sufficiently with citizens and actively incorporate new ideas to build the nation’s top public transportation-friendly city.”