By Yoon Da-mee
Citizens are now able to confirm when the buses they want to take are coming at any bus stop in Seoul with their smartphones.
City Hall said Tuesday that it has put up 10,000 posters with quick response (QR) codes at the 6,300 bus stops across the city.
A spokesman said that that all passengers need to do is to scan the code with their smartphones. The reader or app in the smartphone reads the QR code leading to the arrival time of buses and other information.
He said that the QR code also plays a mobile guide as it displays routes and a variety of events on smartphone handsets in real time. It is also convenient for foreigners as the service is also available in English, Chinese and Japanese.
A QR code is a matrix (square) barcode or 2-dimensional code leading to greater information, an improved version of a simple linear or 1-dimensional barcode which is used on books and goods at supermarkets.
"Citizens’ bus information retrieval increased 125 percent in 2010 from the previous year and a daily average of 200,000 retrievals are made with smartphones," said Kim Chang-gyun, chief of the Seoul Transportation Information Center at City Hall. “The QR code service will help citizens use buses more easily than before as the smartphone population has been rapidly increasing.”
