Socioeconomic Characteristics, Land Uses and Travel Patterns in Pusan

摘要

Pusan is the second largest city in Korea with a total population of approximately 3.9 million. Despite the geographical limitation of the city, the number of cars has been increasing. Although the government has relied rather heavily on highway expansion as its policy for relieving traffic congestion, its supply of transportation infrastructure has been continuously outstripped by a tremendous increase in travel demand. As a solution to the problem, the Pusan Metropolitan City Government has made "promote of competitiveness of public transit system" as the first priority of transportation policy. Its basic goal is to divert auto and taxi users to the transit system by improving the quality of transit services, while discouraging the use of autos. As one step to achieve this goal, the city plans to integrate the components of the public transportation system, i.e., metro and buses, which are currently managed and operated separately, into one organized system. It is essential for a public transportation system to coordinate services of all modes of transportation to attract passengers to the transit system. To do this, much work has to be done in Pusan. Most urban developments in Pusan are concentrated along the north-south and the east-west corridors, which therefore can be served by a relatively simple public transportation network. Metro Line 1 already passes through the north-south corridor. The Line 2 is being built through the east-west corridor. The existing bus routes should be restructured to feed metro stations. This simple metro/bus route network will be able to cover the whole area where Pusan citizens reside, and also it will be able to make public transport system accessible within 300 meters of walking distance. Pusan City is also planning to introduce a combined fare system for metro and bus systems. As a first step, a discounted fare should be applied to the passengers transferring between bus and metro. Later, the fare levels should be determined by travel time spent or distance traveled regardless of mode of transit used. This scheme should be expedited by the adaptation of 'Hanaro Traffic Card' as a transit fare collection system.