KOTI - Korea Transport institute

Korea Transport Institute Hosts 1st New Town Metropolitan Transport Joint Forum

On 5 March, the Korea Transport Institute (President Kim Young-Chan) hosted the ‘1st New Town Metropolitan Transport Joint Forum’ in collaboration with the Metropolitan Transport Commission (Chairman Kang Hee-Up), the Korean Society of Transportation (President Yoo Jeong-Hoon), and the Korea Land and Housing Corporation (President Lee Han-Joon).

This forum was organised as a follow-up to the First New Town Relocation Support and Metropolitan Transport Improvement Plan, aiming to discuss strategies for improving transport in first-generation new towns and to encourage public debate on the matter.

In the first session, Choi Ki-Joo, President of Ajou University, highlighted the limitations of transport policies for first- to third-generation new towns and proposed measures such as diversifying public transport options and restructuring road networks. Lee Dong-Hwan, Mayor of Goyang Special City, presented the current state of metropolitan transport in Ilsan and suggested improvements, stressing the need for infrastructure development.

In the second session, Kim Joong-Eun, Director of the Urban Regeneration and Redevelopment Center at the Korea Research Institute for Human Settlements, underlined the importance of pre-investment in infrastructure and the central government’s role in planning and coordination. Jo Eung-Rae, Visiting Researcher at Seoul National University, proposed strategies for utilizing public contribution funds and metropolitan transport facility charges. Park Tae-Yoon, Associate Research Fellow at the Korea Transport Institute, predicted that metropolitan transport congestion would worsen by 2040 and recommended strengthening transport links with the GTX network and establishing clear evaluation criteria for metropolitan transport improvements as policy suggestions.