People Power Party's Song Eon-seok Proposes Road Traffic Act Amendment to Allow Flexible School Zone Speed Limits at Night and on Holidays

Song Eon-seok, a member of the People Power Party (representing Gimcheon, North Gyeongsang Province), announced on July 6 that he has sponsored a partial amendment to the Road Traffic Act. The bill aims to allow the speed limits in child protection zones (school zones) to be flexibly managed according to the time of day and traffic conditions.

Under the current Road Traffic Act, roads around kindergartens, elementary schools, and daycare centers are designated as child protection zones to prevent traffic accidents involving children. The law stipulates that the speed of vehicles in these zones can be limited to 30 kilometers per hour or less.

Song Un-suk, member of the People Power Party

However, there has been ongoing criticism that applying the same speed limit during times when children are rarely present—such as at night, dawn, on Saturdays, Sundays, and public holidays—acts as an excessive regulation that does not reflect actual traffic conditions, leading to unnecessary traffic congestion and inconvenience.

This proposed amendment seeks to provide a legal basis for administrative authorities to comprehensively consider factors such as the volume of child pedestrian traffic, time-specific traffic conditions, and road conditions. The amendment would allow for flexible management of speed limits in child protection zones from 9:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. on weekdays, as well as on Saturdays, Sundays, public holidays, and substitute holidays when there is little child pedestrian traffic.

Song Eon-seok stated, "This amendment seeks to prioritize children's safety while also achieving efficient traffic administration. I hope that, through parliamentary discussions, reasonable improvements to the system will be made so that the school zone policy can be operated in a more realistic and rational manner."

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