[sustran] Re:

[Lloyd Wright]

Dear Paul,

Yes, Seoul has done some rather impressive improvements of late.  The first
phase of a bus priority scheme has just been launched with further BRT lines
to be added.  The destruction of the Cheonggyecheon elevated highway is quite
remarkable, and certainly contrasts with the building of Segundo Piso in
Mexico City (a massive elevated highway project) and the development of the
Costanera Norte Highway in Santiago (which is essentially a highway replacing
a river).  The reclamation of the Cheonggyecheon waterway is still underway,
as are some of the other projects that you have mentioned.

Much of the credit goes to Mayor LEE Mung-Bak, who only took office in January
2003 (and most of the major projects such as Cheonggyecheon were quickly
developed by his team).  During his first week in office he took a team to
Curitiba, and they have developed a nice exchange of ideas with other cities
such as Curitiba.

Much credit also goes to the team at Seoul Development Institute, which is a
municipal agency providing designs and implementation concepts.  I would
recommend contacting Dr. KIM Gyeng-Chul at the SDI for more information on the
progress in Seoul.  If you are interested, let me know and I can provide
contact details off list.

Best regards,

Lloyd Wright
London

"Barter, Paul" <paulbarter at nus.edu.sg> wrote:

I keep hearing about remarkable changes in Seoul, Korea.  Since the late
1990s there has been a remarkable increase in official attention to
pedestrians and cyclists, much more bus priority (to complement subway
expansions), parking restraint has been applied vigorously, and
congestion charging was introduced on two major routes. And perhaps most
amazing - an inner city elevated expressway was torn down and the buried
stream beneath it has been brought back to the surface as a linear park.
Now we hear about a new round of attempts to make public transport more
integrated and have higher on-road priority. 

So three questions: 
- Where can we get more information on these changes? (Can anyone
elaborate on the story? Maybe my impressions are not accurate? Can
anyone point us towards a good written summary of these events and how
they have come about?)
- What triggered the changes in policy?
- Which particular individuals ('Mayors' or otherwise) or organisations
deserve recognition for these changes? (perhaps via Eric's "Profiles of
Courage")

All the best,
Paul