Five new towns in the Seoul metropolitan area and their attractions in non-working trips: Implications on self-containment of new towns

Abstract

In the late 1980s, the Korean government initiated the “Two Million Home Construction Plan” to tackle severe shortages in housing and soaring housing prices. Five new towns (Bundang, Ilsan, Pyeongchon, Sanbon, and Joongdong) were planned around the city of Seoul. By the mid-1990s the residential areas in the five new towns were mostly developed. However, their commercial areas have remained underdeveloped and as a consequence, the new towns are believed to have become bedroom communities.This paper assesses self-containment status of the new towns by analyzing non-working trip patterns in the five new town areas. A survey conducted on non-working trip patterns of the residents in the five new towns and the nearby areas (to shop for groceries, clothing, electronics/jewelry, leisure/entertainment, and to access medical services) reveals that Bundang's commercial dependency upon the city of Seoul has been reduced significantly over the past 5 years (from 1995 to 2000). The survey results on non-working trip patterns of the residents in the five new towns and nearby residential areas in the Seoul Metropolitan Area indicate that the five new towns have been growing as suburban centers in the region in terms of retail attractions, even though they are still maintaining a high dependency on Seoul in terms of working commutes.These observations provide some new indications about self-containment arguments relevant to new town planning. The new towns are currently maintaining a decent degree of self-containment in terms of non-working trip, which has been an important aspect absent in self-containment arguments. In addition, the appeal of self-containment in non-working activities is growing in a dynamic sense. Observations on the dynamic process of the new town developments in Korea demonstrate that the self-containment can be established but through a long taking cumulative and stepwise process rather than immediately by planning.