South Korea weighs easing school zone speed limits during late-night hours

South Korean police are pushing to ease the 30-kilometer-per-hour speed limit in school zones during late-night hours when accident risks are low. The relaxation, however, would apply only to zones that meet specific safety requirements, including adequate pedestrian protection infrastructure.

The Korean National Police Agency said Thursday it would "rationally improve the operating standards for school zone speed limits to ensure public convenience within a safe range, with children's safety as the top priority." It added that the change would not apply uniformly to all school zones but would be rolled out in stages, starting with locations that meet the necessary safety conditions.

The time-based easing of school zone speed limits was discussed by the Presidential Committee on Regulatory Reform. A police official said the committee had raised the issue, noting that the restrictions caused inconvenience and that there was support for relieving the public burden during hours deemed safe.

Until now, the 30 km/h limit has applied uniformly in school zones regardless of the time of day. A police official said complaints had mounted that maintaining the same speed cap late at night — when pedestrian traffic is virtually nonexistent — was excessive, prompting a pilot program of time-based limits at select zones since 2024. Currently, 84 of the country's 15,856 school zones — about 0.5 percent — operate under time-based relaxations. During hours when the limit is eased, drivers may travel at the speed permitted on the surrounding roads.

The relaxation would not be available to all school zones. To qualify for a time-based limit, a zone must be on a road with at least one lane in each direction, have pedestrian safety barriers or equivalent protective infrastructure, have recorded fewer than two child pedestrian accidents over the past three years, and pass a separate safety review. Police estimate that about 160 school zones nationwide currently meet all of these conditions.

Police assess the overall traffic safety record in school zones as "excellent." According to police statistics, one child was killed in a school zone last year, a sharp drop from eight fatalities in 2015, a decade earlier. Analysis also showed that not a single child traffic accident occurred between midnight and 6 a.m. — the hours targeted for relaxation — over the past five years.

Police believe public opinion has shifted sufficiently in favor of the change. In a survey of 500 people conducted in April last year, 40 percent said they "strongly support" time-based speed limits in school zones and 36 percent said they "support" the idea. By contrast, 5 percent said they "strongly oppose" it and 8 percent said they "oppose" it, while 10 percent had no opinion.

Lee Seo-young, director general of the Korean National Police Agency's Lifestyle Safety and Traffic Bureau, said the agency had developed a plan that could both protect children and ease the burden of excessive regulation on the public, and called on relevant authorities to cooperate. Lee also urged drivers to practice safe driving so that children can move safely through school zones.