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Busan Metropolitan City Strengthens Child Traffic Safety for Future Generations: KRW 11.8 Billion Allocated This Year

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Busan Metropolitan City (Mayor Park Heong-joon) announced that it will invest a total of KRW 11.8 billion this year (2026) to create a safe traffic environment for children, the key stakeholders of future generations, and will continue to promote policies to strengthen traffic safety.

Improvements to Child Protection Zones

First, to prevent traffic accidents and minimize damage within child protection zones, the City will expand traffic safety facilities such as yellow crosswalks, safety guardrails, illegal parking enforcement surveillance cameras (CCTV), and sidewalk installations in accordance with the “Comprehensive Safety Measures for Children’s School Routes” (established in 2023, a four-year plan).

This year, the City plans to improve a total of 283 locations, including 253 sites for visibility enhancement projects such as yellow crosswalk installations and anti-skid pavement, 24 locations for safety guardrail installations, five illegal parking enforcement surveillance cameras (CCTV), and one sidewalk installation.

From 2023 through last year (2025), the City carried out improvement projects at a total of 744 child protection zones, including 429 visibility enhancement projects, 249 safety guardrail installations, 41 illegal parking enforcement surveillance cameras (CCTV), and 25 sidewalk installations.

Installation of Unmanned Traffic Enforcement Devices and Traffic Signals in Child Protection Zones

In addition, the City will install 15 unmanned traffic enforcement devices and traffic signals at 25 locations this year (2026) to prevent speeding and signal violations by vehicles.

Following the revision of Article 12 of the Road Traffic Act in 2020, the installation of unmanned traffic enforcement devices in child protection zones became mandatory. From 2020 through last year (2025), the City installed a total of 668 unmanned traffic enforcement devices and traffic signals at 512 locations in child protection zones.

Child Traffic Safety Education

At the same time, the City aims to create a more pleasant educational environment by repairing aging facilities at its child traffic safety education centers, “Kkumnamu Traffic Land” in Choeup and the “Gupo Children’s Traffic Park,” and to promote the establishment of a proper traffic culture through early-stage traffic safety education for children. In addition, additional virtual reality (VR) educational equipment will be introduced at “Kkumnamu Traffic Land” in Choeup to enhance realism by allowing children to experience real-life situations and to strengthen educational effectiveness.

The City plans to replace the worn outdoor training ground flooring at both “Kkumnamu Traffic Land” and the “Gupo Children’s Traffic Park,” and to add VR educational equipment at “Kkumnamu Traffic Land” to reduce waiting times for equipment use, enabling more children to participate within a limited time.

Child traffic safety education is conducted through both outreach programs to kindergartens and elementary schools and group visits to the education centers, using educational content that incorporates the latest technologies such as virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and motion recognition. Last year (2025) alone, approximately 25,000 children received this education.

In addition, “Kkumnamu Traffic Land” hosts Children’s Day commemorative events and a children’s traffic safety quiz competition, while the “Gupo Children’s Traffic Park” organizes joint festivals with Solbuki Edu Park, family-oriented traffic classes, and bicycle experience programs. These initiatives help children learn traffic safety in a fun and engaging way and naturally recognize its importance.

Hwang Hyeon-cheol, Director General of the City’s Transportation Innovation Bureau, stated, “Creating an environment in which children can grow up healthy is a natural responsibility of our City,” adding, “Traffic safety is a particularly critical element. The City, the police, relevant institutions, as well as drivers, guardians, and local communities will work together to create a traffic environment in which children can grow up safely.”

He also added, “We ask citizens to join us in creating a safe traffic environment through small everyday practices, such as slowing down in child protection zones and complying with traffic rules.”