Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon uses Seoul Bike, the capital city’s public bicycle system, in Seoul on Oct. 22, 2021. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Oct. 25 (Korea Bizwire) — The Seoul Metropolitan Government has decided to introduce 3,000 additional public bicycles, dubbed Ttaereungyi in Korean, by the end of this year, and another 3,000 next year.
Seoul mayor Oh Sae-hoon visited a local Ttaereungyi rental stand near City Hall on Friday to announce the said plans and collect feedback from the public.
Seoul currently operates 37,500 public bicycles at 2,500 rental stands.
Ttareunggi had 3.25 million members as of September. The usage rate of the public bicycle service between January and September of this year jumped by 36.4 percent compared to last year.
The usage rate during commuting hours (8 a.m. to 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.), in particular, jumped by 58.7 percent and 41.9 percent, respectively, qualifying as a widely-used means of transportation in the city.
Previously, Seoul faced public complaints after a parliamentary investigation revealed that the city had not allocated any funding to purchase new public bikes next year.
The city responded that it has been running a big data-based public bike reallocation program since July and that additional bicycles will be introduced based on the results of the program.
Lina Jang (linajang@koreabizwire.com)
