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Busan Metropolitan City to Apply Universal Design to Busan Central Bus Terminal, Greatly Enhancing User Convenience

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Busan Metropolitan City, led by Mayor Park Heong-joon, will collaborate with Design Council Busan to launch full-scale improvement works at Busan Central Bus Terminal starting in April as part of the “2026 Universal Design Pilot Project,” comprehensively enhancing guidance systems and convenience facilities centered on user movement routes.

Universal design refers to a design approach that enables all users to use facilities conveniently regardless of gender, age, physical condition, or cultural background.

Last year, the city selected Busan Central Bus Terminal as a pilot site for the Universal Design Pilot Project (public building improvement) to realize “Design for All” and create a functional city considerate of socially vulnerable groups. Following the completion of detailed design and planning, full-scale construction is now underway.

Busan Metropolitan City and Design Council Busan operated a “Citizen Empathy Design Group,” in which citizens participated throughout the entire design development process, to derive user-centered universal design improvement directions.

Through workshops involving both facility officials and citizens, diverse on-site opinions were collected, identifying actual inconveniences experienced by users and developing improvement measures that were reflected in the design.

Although Busan Central Bus Terminal serves as a major gateway to the city, accommodating both express and intercity buses, the overall aging of facilities has led to continuous user inconvenience.

In particular, as a multi-use facility serving approximately 5.8 million users annually, securing “clarity of movement routes” to enable users to travel from the entrance to boarding without confusion was identified as a key improvement task.

Through on-site investigations and user interviews, the city identified four key areas requiring improvement and will significantly enhance user convenience with a focus on these areas. The introduction of universal design is expected to improve the efficiency of movement routes as well as the operation of waiting areas.

Key improvements include replacing guidance signs containing essential information such as boarding platforms, routes, and ticket offices, and enhancing intuitiveness through standardized colors and wording; and improving waiting areas (waiting halls and boarding platforms) based on spatial and usage analysis to maximize operational efficiency.

Additionally, a nursing room with low accessibility and convenience will be relocated and remodeled to improve user convenience; long-vacant spaces will be transformed into a book café for citizen rest and convenience in consultation with Busan Infrastructure Corporation; and one bus stop for wheelchair users will be newly installed to improve mobility for transportation-vulnerable groups.

The city also plans to continuously accumulate operational data and reflect on-site feedback even after project completion, thereby steadily improving the service quality of public transportation hubs.

Mayor Park Heong-joon stated, “The spatial innovation of Busan Central Bus Terminal goes beyond simple facility improvement and marks the starting point of inclusion that considers the mobility convenience of all users,” adding, “Busan Metropolitan City will create an environment where everyone—including children, the elderly, and persons with disabilities—can use facilities conveniently without discrimination, in order to build ‘a city where everyone can live well’ and ‘a city good for raising children.’”

He further added, “As a city designated as a World Design Capital (WDC), Busan will systematically expand universal design across the public sector to create an urban environment where all citizens can use facilities without restrictions.”