Implementation of smart mobility policy for metropolitan and medium-sized cities in South Korea

The Korean central government’s “Third Smart City Comprehensive Plan 2019-2023” and smart city master plans from 29 local governments are the main scope for this study. Among the number of characteristics attributed to a smart city, smart mobility policies are the focus of this thesis. Thus, the main research question is “How have smart mobility projects been implemented in metropolitan and medium-sized cities in Korea?” To answer the research question, this paper proceeded with comparative analysis, case studies, and statistical assessment. The analysis yielded the following conclusions. First, smart mobility projects applied to medium-sized cities were very uniform, and the projects applied previously on metropolitan cities are similarly implemented in medium-sized cities. In the case of metropolitan cities, the level of smart mobility infrastructure seems to be one step further than that of medium-sized cities. Second, the smart mobility and smart city budget of metropolitan cities is higher than that of medium-sized cities. In addition, the budget for smart cities per population was much larger in medium-sized cities than in metropolitan cities, and the result of dividing the smart mobility budget by the city area was larger in metropolitan cities than in medium-sized cities. Third, private investment in smart mobility projects in mid-sized cities is small. Fourth, performance of shared bicycle use in cities with smart mobility projects based on the smart city plan has increased significantly compared to those that do not.