Research Report
A Study of Public Transportation Legislation for Expanding Public Transportation and Promoting Balanced Development
Ⅰ. Backgrounds and Purposes
▶ The necessity of promoting the use of public transportation and resolving imbalances in different regions and means of transportation
○ In 2005, the Act on the Support and Promotion of Use of Mass Transit System was enacted and implemented but issues have been pointed out as problems: the concentration of public transportation in metropolitan areas, the expansion of areas in provinces vulnerable to transportation, and the concentration of the means of public transportation.
○ Since imbalances in providing public transportation services in regions or imbalanced services in using public transportation on land and at sea cannot fully guarantee the freedom of mobility of the people and may cause obstacles to balanced national development, it is essential to resolve imbalances in public transportation services.
○ Public transportation services are provided in universal service area, and thus financial support is required. While providing sufficient transportation services, it is necessary to reduce the burden of granting such financial support. As a way of reducing such burden, the public transportation use rate must be increased by improving the quality ofpublic transportation services.
▶ Study for fostering public transportation and balanced development, from a traffic and transportation law point of view
○ The State is responsible to nurture public transportation and resolve imbalances between areas for ensuring the freedom of movement of the people as well as for promoting balanced national development and for responding to climate change. In order to fulfill the responsibilities, it is required to establish a legal foundation on those issues.
○ However, the position of the Act on the Support and Promotion of Use of Mass Transit System in the traffic law is not clear, and as a result, it has been pointed out that overall confusion exists in traffic statutes and the legal basis for various policies for promoting public transportation or balanced development is not sufficient.
○ Therefore, it is necessary to study the legal system of public transportation comprehensively for emphasizing the importance and status of traffic and transportation legislation for strengthening relevant legal basis in overall traffic and transportation laws and regulations.
▶ The necessity of study for legal system to establish public transportation infrastructure in response to changes in traffic and transportation environment
○ Despite the changes in traffic and transportation environment, such as the increase in regional differences in the number of public transportation users and the emergence of new transportation businesses, including demand-responsive cars and car-sharing, the traffic and transportation laws and regulations remain a rigid structure that has been formed in the past.
○ On the other hand, infrastructure for public transportation has already been established on land for a long time, but infrastructure issues at sea, such as the establishment of fixed routes for maritime public transportation, which were previously unnecessary but are newly emerged due to the increased use of marine space.
○ Therefore, it is necessary to discover problems that are expected to accompany changes in public transportation services and reflect them in traffic and transportation laws and regulations. Also, it is necessary to study traffic and transportation legislation to be prepared for new environmental changes.
▶ The purpose of this study
○ This research is to study rational approaches to improve various problems that may be related to public transportation by deriving fundamental issues for public transportation legislation through studying basic legal principles and system such as the role of the State in providing public transportation services.
○ The purposes of this study is to research institutional reform measures to foster public transportation considering the status of public transportation business and the elements that public transportation business legislation should have, and to present legislative improvement measures to resolve disproportionate service differences in public transportation means and regions.
Ⅱ. Major Content
▶ Significance of public transportation and statistical analysis of public transportation (Chapter 2)
○ Considering the importance and function of public transportation, this study discusses that the nature of “public” rather than “mass” needs to be emphasized in public transportation today, together with the elements that public transportation services should have, and explains flexible aspects of the scope of public transportation which depend on the era or social environment.
○ In order to foster public transportation, statistics on the general status of public transportation and user satisfaction are investigated and organized, and statistics on imbalance status by region and by transportation means are analyzed to examine the current status of public transportation imbalance.
▶ Review of the duties of the State to provide public transportation services and the right of the people to access transportation (Chapter 3)
○ Discussion on the legitimacy of the state's responsibility to ensure public transportation services and how to carry it out, and review of the cases of France and Japan, which have made legislative efforts to guarantee the right of the people to access transportation.
○ With regard to public transportation service providers, this study reviews the pros and cons of methods in which the State or a local government provides public transportation services directly, allows the private sector to provide such services, and provides support to or imposes regulation on the private sector. Although there is no legal criteria for choosing any of the methods, discussion regarding the issue of the legal basis is made.
▶ Analysis of the current public transportation law system and the regulation of the public transportation business (Chapter 4)
○ This study analyses the current traffic and transportation law system comprehensively, and at the same time conducts investigation of the positive law to see what status the public transportation law and regulation has in the traffic and transportation laws and regulations. Furthermore, it reviews the connection between transportation business laws and public transportation laws.
○ The target of legal analysis is staged into two phases: the first phase is for the establishment and management of infrastructure for public transportation, and the second phase is for entry into the public transportation business and relevant business operations. Moreover, further analysis is conducted for both the regulation of transportation business operations and the financial support system to review overall laws governing the transportation business and relevant practice.
○ The investigation and analysis of municipal ordinances on support for the use of public transportation and those on support for areas vulnerable to public transportation is performed to examine local governments’ support system for fostering public transportation and resolving relevant imbalances.
▶ Legislative improvement plan for promoting public transportation development and balanced development (Chapter 5)
○ In order to promote and foster the use of public transportation, it is essential to have effective development policies by region and by transportation mode, aiming at upgrading the quality of public transportation services. However, public transportation laws and regulations do not play a significant role due to conflicts in traffic and transportation law systems. Therefore, legislative improvement is needed.
○ The Act on the Support and Promotion of Use of Mass Transit System is a fundamental law in terms of public transportation, but the legal basis for providing support to the public transportation sector is stipulated in individual transportation business laws and regulations or other related legislation. In order to promote the independent status of public transportation legislation it is necessary to clearly establish the relationship between laws governing business and those governing support for and development of public transportation.
○ Considering the development stages of the transportation business, which were focused in mass transportation rather than public transportation, imbalances shown in those stages are unavoidable. In order to resolve such imbalances, it is necessary to emphasize the legislation reformation for local governments that actually provide public transportation services. Also, it is required to secure connectivity with municipal ordinances.
Ⅲ. Expected Effects
▶ Use as academic research materials on traffic and transportation legislation
○ The traffic and transportation law is formed based on fundamental discussions in the field of the administrative law. However, the traffic and transportation law is not domestically recognized as an independent academic field compared to the field of transportation and administration law research abroad.
○ This study can be used to establish a theoretical basis for traffic and transportation legislation in that it covers the scope of the State’s duties and responsibilities regarding public transportation and approaches to fulfill its obligation, focusing the public characteristics of public transportation; the review of the regulation of the public transportation business; and the issues on the legislation of financial support, including quasi-public operation system.
▶ Use as legislative materials for the structural reformation of public transportation legislation and improvement thereof
○ This study can contribute to the reformation of public transportation laws and regulations by presenting legal improvement measures to foster public transportation for balanced development, based on the comprehensive legislative issues relating to overall traffic and transportation laws and regulations.
○ It is expected that this study to be used for formulating public transportation policies through legal responses to embrace new transportation types, the adjustment of the scope of public transportation to accommodate new transportation environments, and inclusion of diversified transportation modes.