By Oh Young-jin
Staff Reporter
Incentives in the form of a bonus will likely be provided for people who use bicycles to commute.
This year, a total of 178 kilometers of bicycle paths will be laid out in 10 key cities, and department stores and big malls will be obligated to install bicycle racks.
According to the Ministry of Public Administration and Security Tuesday, the package is aimed at promoting the use of two-wheelers in order to save energy and fight climate change.
In the package, Konkuk and six other universities will start, as a pilot program, on-campus free bicycle rentals, enabling students and faculty members to borrow bikes from stations across campus.
Also "Green Traffic" labels will be given to shops and other business entities that provide discounts to consumers who ride bicycles.
Already, the government has announced a plan to invest a total of 1.5 trillion won until 2019 to create bicycle paths totaling 3,120km in length.
This year, some 180 kilometers of paths will be built.
The government will subsidize not just big cities for new paths but also medium-sized cities. About 90 billion won in subsidies has been earmarked for the project.
Overall, the ministry aims to bring the ratio of bicycles to all commuter transportation to 15 percent.
In order to deal with bike theft, the ministry also plans to combine bicycle registration systems through a nationwide network to make it easier to track down and recover stolen bicycles.
"Bicycles generate no carbon footprint," a ministry spokesman said. "We will spare no effort to make them a key means of transportation."
Regarding the incentives for bicycle commuters, he said that public opinions are still being considered.
fooldie@koreatimes.co.kr
