BOGOTA, July 15 — The mayor of Seoul unveiled a plan yesterday to build bicycle-only roads throughout the South Korean capital city, reported Yonhap News Agency.
Mayor Park Won-soon declared his vision for the so-called Cycle Rapid Transit (CRT) for Seoul during his visit to Bogota, the capital of Colombia, which boasts one of the world’s most extensive networks of car-free roads packed with cyclists.
Park named his vision for an urban network of bicycle-only main roads CRT after the existing Bus Rapid Transit, a high-quality bus-based transit system. Park, who left Seoul last Monday for a 10-day trip to Mexico and Colombia, said he drew inspiration for CRT from Bogota’s “ciclovia” touted as one of the world’s most successful permanent bike paths.
“I’ll create a people-centred bike revolution by building bicycle highways throughout Seoul,” Park told reporters during a tour of ciclovia.
“The existing bike paths are an unstable space that adjoins car roadways. But the CRT will be physically separated from cars and pedestrians. It’s a space exclusively dedicated to bikes,” the mayor said.
Noting bike-only roads now exist from east to west along the Han River parks, Park said he will build north-south CRT networks to ensure smoother flows of bicycle traffic.
He said CRT networks will be built above bus-only lanes or along Han River bridges or other existing urban facilities in tubes or other forms. The existing bike-only lanes on major car roadways will be elevated to the level of sidewalks.
Park’s government will also build 72km of bike-only roads in new urban development districts, like Magok, Wirye and Godeok-Gangil.
“Bicycle-centred and human-centred traffic is a big vision and movement across the world,” the mayor said. “We don’t have to hesitate, as the definition of human-oriented roads has been made clear.” — Bernama
