Wonju-si selected for MSIT’s Smart Village project; eight smart shelters to be built

【Financial News, Wonju = Kim Gi-seop, Staff Writer】Smart shelters equipped with heating and cooling systems will be installed at eight major bus stops in Wonju, and a service will be introduced allowing passengers to check the real-time locations of buses in service on a map.
According to Wonju-si on the 12th, the city’s proposal for a smart shelter project providing highly precise bus location information has been selected in the final round of the Ministry of Science and ICT’s 2027 Smart Village Dissemination and Expansion Program. The city plans to invest a total of 1.95 billion won—800 million won to build the shelters and 1.15 billion won to upgrade the bus information system—to ease the discomfort of waiting during heat waves and cold snaps and provide residents with more accurate bus information.
The smart shelters will be installed at eight hubs with high numbers of bus passengers and people with limited mobility. The sites are near the Intercity/Express Bus Terminal (Dangye-dong), Nambu Market on Namwon-ro (Myeongnyun 1-dong), Lotte Cinema (Dangu-dong), Hanil Gas Station (Taejang 2-dong), Gangwon Vehicle Maintenance Technical Academy (Usan-dong), Munmak Saemaeul Geumgo (Munmak-eup), the Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service (Innovation City), and Lotte Castle 2nd Complex (Enterprise City).
The new shelters will be equipped with heating and cooling systems, air purifiers, closed-circuit television cameras, emergency bells and other facilities, allowing passengers to wait for buses safely and comfortably in any season. The city will also connect the nine smart shelters already in operation to the new system and improve the readability of their information displays so that older people and others with limited mobility can easily read bus service information.
The bus information system will also take a step forward. Until now, it has only provided estimated bus arrival times at each stop. Going forward, the locations of buses actually in service will appear on a map in real time, making it possible to see their progress at a glance. Real-time service information will also improve the accuracy of estimated arrival times, and passengers will be able to check this information on both stop information terminals and their personal smartphones.
Once the system is in place, remote monitoring will be used to check the operating status of facilities such as the shelters, while usage figures and bus operation data will be collected and analyzed. The city plans to use the accumulated data to develop public transportation policies suited to local conditions, including adjustments to bus intervals and route changes.
Ko Dong-cheol, head of the city’s Transportation Administration Division, said, “Going forward, you’ll be able to see at a glance on a bus-stop information terminal or a map on your smartphone where the bus you’re going to take is at that moment.” He added, “We’ll make sure people can wait for buses with peace of mind in shelters equipped with heating, cooling and emergency bells, whatever the season, and actively use the accumulated service data to improve bus intervals and routes.”

[email protected] Kim Gi-seop Reporter