On March 10th (local time), Mayor Choi Min-ho (최민호) of Sejong City (세종시) met with Mayor Michelle Wu at the Boston City Hall in the United States to discuss public transportation policy and collaboration in various fields such as transportation, urban development, and education research.
During the meeting with Mayor Michelle Wu, Mayor Choi explained that "both cities have various similarities in terms of scale, education, transportation, and innovation, and especially in the direction of promoting public transportation policy." Mayor Wu also expressed a high level of interest in Sejong, which is becoming the administrative capital of South Korea, and the two cities agreed to build a friendly cooperative relationship and solve urban problems through the continuous exchange.
Boston is one of the historically significant cities in the United States and an educational city where world-renowned universities such as Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) are located. The city has been vigorously promoting public transportation innovation such as free public transportation, expanding bicycle road networks, and operating public bicycles (Blue Bikes - 블루바이크).
Prior to the meeting with Mayor Wu, Mayor Choi had a policy meeting with officials from the Boston transportation department to discuss the introduction of public transportation policies, the results of the bus-free pilot project, and policy considerations.
Since March of last year, Boston has implemented a two-year free bus policy until February 2024 to alleviate public transportation congestion, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and ease the burden on vulnerable groups, and the share of public transportation has increased by about 5% in a year.
In particular, Boston expressed a high level of interest in Sejong's public transportation free policy and its local currency refund method.
Mayor Choi also visited the Traffic Control Center and Urban Development Department (교통관제센터, 도시개발부서) for his next schedule to hear about the traffic control and urban development situation.
Boston was a city notorious for traffic congestion due to its past transportation issues. However, they were able to reduce traffic congestion and carbon emissions by carrying out the Big Dig project, which involved tunneling the elevated highways underground and promoting free bus services.
In particular, officials from Boston, who are interested in Korean culture, also attended the meeting to share their transportation and urban policies with both cities.
Mayor Choi stated, "In order to solve urban problems such as traffic congestion, public transportation innovation is essential," and added, "I will make sure that Sejong City takes the lead in related policies in Korea so that the small ball that Boston has thrown up can become the flow of transportation that cities around the world pursue."
