Skip to main content

Korea aiming to build the world’s smartest highways

One of the ten key projects launched in 2006 by Korea’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport aims to build the world’s most intelligent highways. In a world where eighty per cent of traffic accidents on expressways are attributed to driver negligence, Korea records the lowest level of traffic safety among OECD member countries. The smart highway project aims to reduce the accident rate and encourage people to use expressways more conveniently by integrating information, automobile and road mana
September 4, 2013 Read time: 2 mins
One of the ten key projects launched in 2006 by Korea’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport aims to build the world’s most intelligent highways.

In a world where eighty per cent of traffic accidents on expressways are attributed to driver negligence, Korea records the lowest level of traffic safety among 7353 OECD member countries. The smart highway project aims to reduce the accident rate and encourage people to use expressways more conveniently by integrating information, automobile and road management technologies.

The smart highway project comprises: the development of road-based technology including road weather warning systems, high performance lighting and the development of safety barriers and road signs; traffic management technology using wireless communications, automobile-related technology, vehicle to vehicle and vehicle to infrastructure communications systems and multi-lane tolling systems; and the provision of real time traffic information for drivers and the development of comprehensive road and vehicle management systems and technologies for lane departure prevention and vehicle control assistance based on road related data.

“Creative technologies, including cutting-edge ICT converging technology, will be absolutely needed if we want to change the paradigm of roads to a living space from just transportation infrastructure,” said Lee Eui-jun, the managing director of Korea SMART Highway Study and Application Centre in an interview with BusinessKorea. He added, “We should continuously locate new models for transportation system that contribute to making life more convenient and safe by converging IT, telecommunications, automotive technologies and road management.”

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Demonstration of first German A9 motorway safety project
    November 10, 2015
    In the first project of the ‘digital A9 motorway test bed’ to show how vehicles on a motorway can share hazard information, Continental, Deutsche Telekom, Fraunhofer ESK and Nokia Networks have carried out a real-time demonstration of communication between vehicles via the Deutsche Telecom LTE cell network. The project, which aims to improve road safety and traffic management, involved upgrading Deutsche Telekom's existing LTE network at sections of the A9 motorway test bed with Nokia Networks’ mobile e
  • V2V technologies expected to offer safety benefits, but challenges exist
    November 4, 2013
    A new report by the US Government Accountability office (GAO) expects vehicle to vehicle (V2V) technologies to offer safety benefits, but says that a variety of deployment challenges exist. The report finds that development of V2V technologies has progressed to the point of real world testing, and if broadly deployed, they are anticipated to offer significant safety benefits.
  • Weigh in Motion gets smarter
    January 4, 2023
    Weigh in Motion technology is at the forefront of protecting road surfaces and helping enforcement activity – but could it also play a key role in the development of Smart Cities?
  • Study finds rumble strips save lives on rural highways
    June 2, 2015
    A recently completed study shows that rumble strips are proving to be an effective and low-cost way to reduce crashes on Michigan's state highways. The Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) started a major rumble strip program for two-lane high-speed rural highways in 2008. Centre-line and shoulder rumble strips were installed on all MDOT rural, non-freeway highways with posted speed limits of 55 mph and appropriate paved lane and shoulder widths. To date, 5,700 miles of centre-line rumble strips