'Highways for bikes': Seoul vows to upgrade cycling infrastructure

Citizens cycle along a color-coded bike path and street as part of a car-free parade in Jongno, Seoul, in this April 2018 photo. Korea Times file

New bike lanes will be elevated from the road and car-free

By Lee Suh-yoon

Cycling is a mentally taxing activity in Seoul. Cyclists who ride on the well-marked and continuous bike paths on the Han's riverbanks soon find themselves riding neck-and-neck with trucks on a color-coded road or teetering between pedestrians on a crowded sidewalk.

Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon says he can change this in the next two years. The idea is to build a network of bike-exclusive lanes that offer safe and barrier-free routes throughout the capital.

Some of these lanes will be set up on the pavement, distinctly marked from the footpath on one side and elevated from cars and other traffic on the other. To make space for the extended curb, the number of car lanes may be trimmed down at some sites, the mayor said.

Illustrations of Seoul City's plan for expanding the city's cycling infrastructure / Courtesy of Seoul Metropolitan Government

Courtesy of Seoul Metropolitan Government

"The plan is to build bike roads that are completely separate from the street and cars," Park announced on Sunday during his visit to a ciclovia, one of the famed bicycle superhighways in downtown Bogota, Colombia, where cars are blocked from the 120 kilometers of roads every Sunday.

"(After the changes,) I think more people will abandon their cars for a bike when commuting to work in downtown Seoul. Around 30 minutes will be sufficient to get from Yeongdeungpo to City Hall due to a lack of barriers ― it will be just like riding on a highway."

Some of Park's plans extend far beyond setting up new bike paths. He wants to build bike-exclusive overpasses and raised highways that cross and travel over congested roads in mid-air.

One of these, dubbed the "canopied highway," will set up roofed bikeways above bus-exclusive lanes. Another, inspired by the winning design in the Eco-Bike Line architecture contest in February, will tuck tube-like paths under the decks of elevated expressways and train bridges. At wider roads, like Teheran-ro in Gangnam, the mayor is even thinking of building huge flyovers with plant-lined bike paths similar to Seoullo 7017, the old overpass that was recycled into a garden footpath next to Seoul Station.

An outside contractor will review the feasibility and cost-effectiveness of each component of the proposed plans and sketch out a detailed plan over the next few months, a Seoul City official said. Most of the construction will be carried out in 2020.

Kim Jin-tae, a regular cyclist and the head of the Bike Culture Social Cooperative, said he welcomes the plans but is highly doubtful if such big-scale construction projects could fill in the holes in the city's biking infrastructure.

"Due to the riverside bike paths, I can easily travel from east to west on my morning commute but getting to work from there on is quite risky," Kim said in a phone interview. "Pouring money into big construction projects is a step in the wrong direction. The central premise of expanding cycling infrastructure should always be reducing car traffic in the city. And freeing up the road for separate bike paths is a much more cost-effective solution."

A better connection between Ttareungyi, the city-run bike rental service, and the rest of city's public transport system will also make biking a more feasible option for commuters, Kim said. According to the most recent statistics, an accumulated 22.3 million journeys have been booked on the Ttareungyi app over the last four years. Next year, some 40,000 Ttareungyi bikes will be available in Seoul, up from the current 25,000, the city said.

"In the Netherlands, each train station is fitted with a public bike rental station and parking space for thousands of bikes," Kim said. "People take the bike to the station and hop on a train. To yield concrete results in the next two years, the city must strengthen bikes' connectivity with the public transport system and set up safe bike paths at central connection points."

The mayor offered more detailed plans for select sites in the city. Four bridges on the Han River ― Gayang, Wonhyo, Yeongdong and Olympic ― will be made crossable with a bike to link key leisure spots located on opposite sides of the river. The expected bike lane on Gayang Bridge will link Seoul Botanic Park with Haneul Park. Yeongdong Bridge, further east, will offer cyclists a continuous route between Apgujeong Rodeo Street and Seoul Forest if the plan is realized.

The city will also engineer bike-friendly zones in newly developing neighborhoods of Munjeong-dong, Godeok, Gangil, Magok, Hangdong and Wirye, setting up 170 kilometers of bike paths in these areas.

The city hopes expanding the cycling infrastructure will help the city better cope with worsening air pollution.

"More cycling by citizens will save energy, reduce vehicle emissions and improve public health. It's a solution that kills three birds with one stone," the mayor said.