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You can see a lot of people riding kickboards on the streets these days. That's why you'll often see kickboards that have been set up haphazardly. As more and more people leave their kickboards anywhere after riding, the number of kickboard tows has exceeded 11,000 since last July. Then, wherever you leave the kickboard, we did a survey and found that there were a lot of places in downtown Seoul, especially around subway stations.
Reporters Bae Yeo-woon and Yoo Deok-gi pointed out this issue at the Data Journalism Team.
<Reporter Bae Yeo-woon>
Such illegal parking of kickboards is actually a great danger to pedestrians.
Blind grandfather Kim Mo, whom the reporters met, stumbled and fell on an electric kickboard illegally parked in September and seriously injured his knee.
[The blind person in their 80s / Fracture in the parking electric kickboard: (in the middle of the sidewalk I usually go) There is a round pillar. (who) put some kickboards under it. I got caught there (I fell and got injured.)]
Currently, some local governments have defined roadways, subway exits, and crosswalks as illegal parking areas and are towing them, but illegal parking is still there.
The SBS data journalism team's errands obtained data from Seoul's illegal parking-sharing kickboard towing and examined the actual situation.
From July to the end of October this year, the total number of illegal parking sharing kickboard tows was 11,996.
There were places with a lot of tow, around subway stations.
62.8% of the total number of tows within a 300m radius of the subway station.
In a nutshell, there are many cases where they ride to the front of the subway station and park it anywhere.
The place with the highest monthly average number of cases was Sillim Station, followed by Seoul National University Station and Hongik University Station.
All of them are crowded places.
What stands out in this analysis is the illegal parking around elderly welfare facilities.
Of the 164 elderly care areas in Seoul, 35.4% had towed a kickboard at least once, and in one elderly welfare center area, more than 20 times a month were also towed.
For the safety of the elderly, who are weak on walking, 300m around the elderly welfare facility is a no-parking area for kickboards.
[○○ ku Seoul Senior welfare officials. Hasineunde move when there are many Electric Kick Scooters, which is very difficult to stop illegal hasigoyo]
<Yoo, Duck - Ki news>
In order to prevent such illegal parking Electric Kick Scooters parking space available for the first electric Kick Scooters need do.
[Professor Pilsu Kim / Department of Future Automobile, Daelim University: (PM parking) does not need a large area. Blind Spot. There are just useless lands. Even borrowers can park there.] In the
metropolitan area, there is also controversy over the number of shared kickboards.
[Heechul Shin, Head of the Korea Transportation Research Institute: It is not an easy problem.
However, it seems clear that a limit on the number of units is necessary.
It seems that Seoul has a lot more than other big cities.] In
fact, the number of shared kickboards in Seoul has increased from 150 in 2018 to 48,000 recently.
Paris, France, and San Francisco, USA, which experienced illegal parking after introducing shared kickboards, periodically survey city traffic conditions and usage, and then calculate the appropriate number of operating companies and the number of kickboards.
Companies operating shared kickboards explain that restricting the number and number of companies can be a shackle to new growth industries, and that Seoul, in particular, has fewer operating units per population compared to overseas big cities.
[Rep. Ki-won Hong/Land Transport Committee of the National Assembly: (legislation and system) tend to be a little delayed and fail to keep up with the changing society, but such an effort to quickly complete the laws and systems is urgent.]
3 years since the introduction of shared kickboards, mobility environment It is time to urgently supplement the legal and institutional devices for kickboards in line with the changes in
(Video coverage: Lee Seung-hwan, Kim Tae-hoon, video editing: Lee So-young, Park Ji-in, VJ: Kim Cho-a, Jeong Han-wook, Writer: Lee Mi-sun, CG: Hong Seong-yong, Seong Jae-eun, Ahn Ji-hyeon, Jeon Hae-ri, Jo Hyeon-seo)