How to Reduce CO2 Emissions by 10 % in Seoul

Seoul was able to reduce their CO2 emissions by 10% annually. Of course, it was through a policy which aimed at individual transport. The really unique thing is that the reduction wasn’t made by force or through investing billions into structural measures. A program with certain benefits made it attractive for car drivers to participate voluntarily. The only thing they had to do is to leave their car at home once a week and use public transport to get to work. Even greater is how Seoul monitors this activity: through a sticker. Yes, a sticker saves around 2 million tons of CO2. You don’t believe me?

No Driving Day Policy

The name of this program is “No Driving Day” (in Korean: 승용차요일제). This summary by C40 Cities shows the outcome of the “No Driving Day” program:

Seoul’s Weekly No Driving Day program is improving air quality, congestion and saving energy. Every year, two million cars stay off the road – decreasing traffic volume by 3.7%. CO2 vehicle emissions are being reduced by 10% – a total of 2 million tons of CO2, delivering annual savings of $50 million USD in fuel costs. The improved air quality is also improving the health of residents, saving the City millions annually. The program works because it is applied during weekdays, which encourages people to use alternate modes of transport to and from work.

The measure was proposed in 2003 and it started on January 19, 2006. A participant registers his car at the official page  or a service center. Then he gets stickers, which contain a unique ID for his car. The participant puts one of the following sticker on the front window:

As you can see, the participant can choose on what weekday he doesn’t want to use his car. Inside the city there are control units which can detect the stickers through “Radio Frequency Identification”. On this way Seoul checks if they are using the car only on the other weekdays. After registration it’s very important that the participant uploads a picture of his car with the sticker to their web service. That’s some kind of evidence that they really own a car.

Benefits of the Program

The No Driving Day is a simple and very creative measure. It was proven to be successful as you could see. Therefore, over the years it was expanded to Gyeonggido, Daejeon and Daegu. According to this article at Korea4expats, even Non-Koreans can participate in this program. What is the key to the success? Of course, there are benefits for participants:

The benefits are divided into two groups: benefits for usage of public services (blue color icons) and benefits from private entities (purple).

To the first group belongs that you have to pay 5 % less car-taxes and that you get a 50 % discount on the Namsan Car-Tunnel (instead of 2,000 KRW, it costs only 1,000 KRW). On certain parking places this sticker also guarantees 20 to 30 % discount and Seoul will grant you priorities on car-parking lots near your house (something for people, who doesn’t live in apartment complexes). The next benefit is something like a congestion tax (교통유발부담금), which retail has to pay because they attract all the traffic. There are between 10 to 30 % discount on these taxes but I couldn’t understand this tax fully, so I don’t know who benefits from that and who actually pays this congestion tax (shop owners?).

The benefits in the private sector are: discount at gas station for petrol and repair services and even a free car wash. Your insurance company may also decrease your monthly insurance fee for around 8-9 %. Then there are a couple of other discounts for restaurants, bike rentals, bookstores and so on. You see that there’s a wide variety of benefits and almost all of them aim at the wallet of the car driver.

Sources and Related Information: C40 Cities | No Driving Day Seoul | No Driving Day App |