Public votes bike system as best 2017 Seoul policy

Seoul residents selected the city’s public bike system as the best Seoul city government policy of the year, announced the Seoul Metropolitan Government on Sunday.

“We’ve asked Seoulites to pick the best policy of the city for year 2017,” the city government said in its release, “and Ddareungyi won the first place.”

Ddareungyi is a public bike rental system run by the Seoul city government since 2016. Anyone in Seoul can use the system’s mobile app to rent a bike 24/7 in the city, from 1,028 Ddareungyi stations located near subway stations and bus stops.

According to the Seoul city government, more than 6.56 million people have used the bike system since its establishment.

A total of 179,290 Seoulites voted on what they think Seoul city government’s best policies are for the year on its website from mid-November to Tuesday. The city government runs these votes annually to find out which policies are popular and to develop similar programs to meet the needs of the residents, it said.

The voters picked the city government’s school bathroom renovation project as the second-best policy of the year. The city government renovated the interior design of 800 bathrooms at elementary, middle and high schools throughout Seoul since 2015.

Third place went to Seoul’s Mapo Oil Tank Reserve Park, the outdated oil tank reserve area that equals some 22 soccer fields in Mapo District, western Seoul, which was transformed into a culture park this year.

BY ESTHER CHUNG [chung.juhee@joongang.co.kr]