Transportation

figure 8: south Korea hi-pass Card and oBU device

publicly available, in February 2008 the govern- ment designated the Korea Expressway Corporation (KEC), which constructs and manages South Korea’s expressways, as the corporation for provision of in- tegrated traffic information not only on expressways but also on national roads and urban district roads. KEC offers paid traffic information services through mobile phones, telematics devices, satellite broadcast- ing, and IPTV. Of the 16 million vehicles in South Korea, 5 million (31 percent) use on-board vehicle navigation systems.¹⁰³

Public transportation information systems, particu- larly for buses, are also highly deployed in South Korea. Seoul alone has 9,300 on-bus units, equipped with wireless modems and GPS position detectors (Figure 7). Three hundred bus stops communicate with Seoul’s central traffic operations management center via wireless communications to provide an in- tegrated, up-to-the second view of Seoul’s bus trans- portation network. The service includes bus arrival time, current bus location, and system statistics. Bus stop terminals are equipped with LCD or LED mes- sage screens to alert riders to bus status and sched- ules. South Koreans regularly use the location-based tracking feature in their GPS-enabled phones to ac- cess a Web site that automatically presents a list of available public transportation options (bus or sub- way); the system recognizes where in a city the pas- senger is located and presents walking directions to the nearest public transportation option.

South Korea has introduced a unified fare smart card system for public transportation called T-money (initially available only in Seoul but now being ex-

panded nationally). the Korea Smart Card Company, a joint venture spearheaded by The Seoul Metropoli- tan Government and including LG Group (an elec- tronics company), credit card companies, and smaller telecommunications companies, launched T-money in 2004.¹⁰⁴ Customers use T-money to pay for trans- portation, including bus, train, and taxi service, as e-money to make purchases at vending machines, convenience stores, and museums, to pay fines or taxes, and even as a mileage or membership card. As of March 2009, customers used T-money for 30 mil- lion public transit transactions per day (15.4 million bus and 14.6 million subway transactions). Within the Seoul metropolitan area, 18 million T-money smart cards have been issued, with T-money accepted at the reader terminals of 19,750 buses; over 8,000 subway terminals; 73,000 taxi cabs; 21,000 vending machines; and 8,300 convenience stores, fast food stores, and parking garages. As Seoul’s subway system has moved from paper tickets to smart cards, it has eliminated the need for 450 million paper magnetic stripe tickets at a savings of 3 billion won ($2.4 million) per year. Installation of electronic payment systems on mass transit vehicles is expected to be completed by the end of 2011.¹⁰⁵

South Korea’s Hi-Pass electronic toll collection sys- tem (Figure 8), which uses 5.8GHz DSRC technology to enable non-stop cashless toll payment, covers 260 toll plazas and over 3,200 km of highway in South Korea. Five million South Korean vehicles use Hi- Pass, which has a highway utilization rate over 30 per- cent. South Koreans can also use their Hi-Pass card for other purchases beyond highway tolls, including at parking lots, gas stations, and convenience stores.