Since 1995, the Children’s Protection Zone (School Zone) has been designated to prevent and protect children in traffic accidents. After specifying a certain section of the roads around the school zone, the safety facilities are installed and the vehicle speed is limited to 30km/h. In September 2019, the law and system related to the school zone were strengthened due to the death of Kim Min -sik, who was crossed in the school zone in Asan, Chungnam, and increased the level of crackdowns and punishment when violating the law. Controversy over the effectiveness and equity of the law between strict and excessive punishment is continuously raised, and it is necessary to review and improve the School Zone system in general.

In this study, the company aimed to suggest the “school zone operation improvement plan” for elementary school zones, which account for the largest percentage of Seoul’s school zones and especially emphasized children’s safety.

We reviewed the laws and issues related to the school zone and identified the distribution of the school zone in Seoul and the type of residential area. In addition, the school zone characteristics were analyzed by reviewing the main gate of elementary school and the back door, the separation of the sidewalk and the roadway, and the road at the main entrance. Based on these analysis, the Seoul Elementary School Zone has derived problems and suggested solutions.

First, in order to improve the school zone system that is applied collectively, a customized improvement plan was proposed according to the range of areas where students can commute to school. It also proposed ways to actively utilize facilities in schools, such as changing the location of the main entrance and designating the “Drop-Zone” in the school. In the areas where the driveway and the sidewalk were difficult to separate, they also proposed a way to limit the speed by stages by determining the level of children's safety threats. Lastly, the main road that does not significantly affect the safety of children was proposed to provide a reasonable speed limit by introducing a shift system for smooth communication of urban transportation.