Why an advanced traffic culture helps to reduce road fatalities

“Republic of Korea: 75 points”

This score represents Koreans’ recognition of traffic safety and the country`s level of traffic culture.

According to a report on a traffic culture index survey obtained by The Dong-A Ilbo Wednesday, Korea posted a traffic culture score of 75.2 points, up 0.41 points from 74.79 of last year, but had lower scores in the ratios of vehicles stopping at stop lines, the ratio of passengers wearing seat belts, and observance of traffic signals. The report indicated the growing severity of illegal driving practices on the country`s roads.

This is the first time for the rankings of autonomous districts and scores by item to be publicized. Goheung County in South Jeolla Province ranked first with 84.88 points among 173 autonomous cities and counties nationwide. Imsil County in North Jeolla Province was at the bottom with 54.44. Among 76 cities evaluated, Gyeryong in South Chungcheong Province ranked first with 84.26, while Naju in South Jeolla Province was last with 64.25.

○ Improvement of traffic facilities and public transportation

Analysts say local autonomous governments with high safety rankings reduced the rate of traffic accidents by improving road facilities in sections vulnerable to mishaps and by staging road safety campaigns.

Goheung County, which topped the list this year, used to have the lowest rank of 130th as recently as 2010. The county built pedestrian paths in areas around its inter-city bus terminal and installed round-abouts at five busy downtown intersections. This reduced the number of accidents. Repeated accidents caused by illegal U-turns north of Sorok Island were also prevented through the installation of medians.

Gyeryong installed safety facilities as part of its road safety campaign after analyzing problems in road sections that had numerous accidents since 2010. As a result, the number of traffic accidents per 10,000 vehicles plummeted to 42.33 cases, less than half the national average.

Yangsan in South Gyeongsang Province, which saw its ranking jump from 91st to sixth over the past three years, increased the number of people using public transportation via bus fare discounts for transfer passengers using different modes of transportation. Since a passenger could save about 500 won (45 cents) per trip through discounts when changing buses en route to Busan, more people used public transportation and fewer drove passenger cars.

Passenger cars traveling between Yangsan and Busan continued to increase through 2010, and soared to an average of 187,288 vehicles per day on weekdays at one point. But the number declined 9.8 percent to 168,911 after 2011, when the fare discount for transfer passengers was introduced. As a result, traffic congestion was greatly alleviated and the number of traffic accidents declined.

○ Elderly people more vulnerable to accidents

According to an analysis of populations in 20 local autonomous governments ranking in the top and bottom groups among the 164 surveyed and the ratio of people killed in traffic accidents, a less developed traffic culture can cause more serious problems due to traffic accidents involving the elderly.

In the 20 lowest-ranked districts in the traffic culture index, including Naju and Imsil County, the elderly comprised 24.9 percent of the population last year, meaning a fourth of the residents were senior citizens. In contrast, the average population of senior citizens relative to the rest of the population in the 20 highest-ranked districts, including Gyeryong and Osan, Gyeonggi Province, was just 10.1 percent.

The high population ratio of senior citizens led to serious traffic accidents involving the age group. Two of every five people killed in traffic accidents in the 20 bottom-ranked districts in the traffic culture index were senior citizens.

Experts say the elderly are exposed to traffic danger due to lack of interest in them among local autonomous governments. Authorities can designate “silver zones,” which requires a lower speed limit and longer green lights, just like "school zones" for students.

Naju, where the elderly comprise 24.5 percent of the population, had 325 senior citizen centers but just one was designated a silver zone. In townships away from downtown, areas lack pedestrian paths and thus senior citizens are exposed to the danger of crossing a road that has vehicles that can go up to 80 kilometers an hour. Three of the 19 senior citizens killed in traffic accidents in Naju last year were hit by vehicles while walking along the shoulders of roads with no pedestrian paths.

The fear is that the higher danger of traffic accidents for senior citizens in districts that rank low in the traffic culture index will spread nationwide sooner rather than later. Statistics Korea predicted that the country will see a highly aged society in 2026, when senior citizens will account for more than 20 percent of the population. Jang Gyeong-woo, a senior researcher at Korea Transportation Security Authority, said, “Silver zones should be expanded in tune with the growing elderly population, and training on traffic safety for senior citizens should be beefed up in tune with their growing numbers.”

becom@donga.com