Consolidating Inefficient and Overlapping Routes
Enhancing Accessibility Through Integration with "Ddok Bus"
Icheon City's innovation in its public transportation system has been selected as the best proactive administration case among local governments in Gyeonggi-do. The city received high praise for improving its inefficient existing city bus system by integrating it with the demand-responsive transport (DRT) system known as "Ddok Bus."
Officials from Icheon City who won the grand prize at the Gyeonggi-do Proactive Administration Best Practice Competition are taking a commemorative photo after receiving the award. Photo by Icheon City
On August 26, Icheon City announced that it had won the grand prize at the "Gyeonggi-do Proactive Administration Best Practice Competition," held on August 25 at the Gyeonggi-do Arts Center Convention Hall, for its project titled "Public Transportation Renaissance! Innovative City Bus Reform."
A total of 72 cases competed in this competition, including 29 from local governments and 43 from public institutions. Icheon City, which received the top award in Group B during the evaluation divided into four groups, ultimately won the grand prize in the final review among the four group-winning local governments and public institutions.
The city's public transportation system reform received high scores in resident satisfaction, task difficulty, scalability, creativity, and expertise during the competition.
To reform the public transportation system, the city conducted data-based analysis of city bus usage demand to determine the appropriate number of buses, and has been pushing for phased and continuous route adjustments by region. Through these efforts, Icheon City not only reduced inconvenience for public transportation users but also improved transportation profitability and achieved an annual budget saving of 500 million won by reducing the total number of city buses.
The city boldly consolidated or eliminated routes with low utilization or overlap, introduced "Hope Taxis" linked to city buses, and expanded the "Ddok Bus" service in transportation-disadvantaged areas, which was recognized for increasing resident satisfaction.
Since the second half of last year, the city reorganized 22 bus routes in two areas, Janghowon-eup and Yul-myeon, where the Ddok Bus service was introduced, saving 200 million won in the process. In the first half of this year, the city also consolidated 47 routes over three rounds and reformed 13 high-demand city bus routes.
Next month, the city plans to reorganize the outer ring city bus routes and replace them with route-based Ddok Buses to improve public transportation accessibility in underserved urban areas. In this process, two replaced city buses will be deployed as student shuttle buses serving the Bubal-Jungpo and Baeksa-Sindun areas.
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