Amid a surge in public transportation use due to energy supply instability for crude oil and other fuels stemming from the Middle East war, the Blue House said on the 3rd it will offer incentives for using public transportation outside rush hours such as commuting times. Details on what benefits will be offered will be finalized after further discussions. It also said it will first expand flexible commuting hours in the public sector to spread out traffic demand by time slot.
According to Jeon Eun-su, Blue House Spokesperson, Ha Jun-kyung, Blue House senior secretary for growth economy, chaired an emergency meeting of related ministries the previous day to discuss measures for "dispersing traffic during commuting hours." Jeon said, "At the emergency meeting, we discussed providing additional incentives to citizens who use public transportation outside rush hours to encourage voluntary shifts in demand," and added, "To disperse users by time slot, we will proactively expand flexible commuting hours starting with the public sector."
Jeon said, "We discussed effective support measures to establish flexible work in the public sector as a model case and to further activate it in the institutional sector," adding, "As this measure will operate under a pan-ministerial joint system, we will eliminate silos among ministries for energy crisis response and citizen safety and respond with all-out efforts."
The measures to ease commuting congestion will be led by the Blue House and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, with the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment (MCEE), the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, and the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources establishing a joint response system.