Gyeonggi Province Residents' Rights Commission Recommends Gunpo City Revise Reporting Standards and Install Preventive Facilities

The Gyeonggi Province Residents' Rights Commission announced on the 11th that it has recommended Gunpo City devise improvement measures, including revising resident reporting standards and installing facilities to prevent illegal parking and stopping, citing that habitual illegal parking and stopping around the Daeyami Samgeori bus stop repeatedly prevents buses from entering the designated stopping zone and forces passengers to board and alight in traffic lanes.

As a result of the Commission's on-site investigation, it was repeatedly confirmed that some vehicles seeking to use nearby stores occupied the entrance and exit lanes of the bus stop for around one minute, preventing large buses from properly entering the stopping zone.

For this reason, situations were occurring in which buses stopped in traffic lanes rather than in the designated stopping zone, and passengers boarded and alighted from the traffic lanes, exposing them to the risk of traffic accidents.

This decision began with a citizen's grievance complaint asking for a solution to the illegal parking and stopping problem around the Daeyami Samgeori bus stop. The complainant appealed that vehicles repeatedly parking and stopping at the entrance and exit lanes of the stop were interfering with bus operations and the safe boarding and alighting of passengers.

Article 32 of the current Road Traffic Act prohibits stopping or parking vehicles within 10 meters of a location where a pole, sign, or line indicating a bus stop is installed.

However, the "Gunpo City Operating Standards for the Illegal Parking and Stopping Resident Reporting System" designates only "vehicles that encroach upon the road-surface-marked area of a bus stop" as subject to resident reporting.

Accordingly, even if the entrance and exit lanes of a bus stop fall within a no-parking or no-stopping zone under the Road Traffic Act, there were limits to receiving and processing resident reports unless a vehicle directly encroached upon the road-surface markings.

The Gyeonggi Province Residents' Rights Commission plans to consult with the relevant departments to review the bus stop resident reporting standards of other cities and counties, and to consider institutional improvement measures if necessary.

Jang Jin-su, chairperson of the Gyeonggi Province Residents' Rights Commission, said, "Illegal parking and stopping around bus stops not only interferes with bus operations but can also threaten citizens' safety by causing passengers to board and alight in traffic lanes," adding, "We will work to improve both the system and on-site conditions so that buses can properly enter the stopping zone and citizens can use public transportation safely."