SKorea Promotes Bicycles to Ease Traffic

South Korea is turning to an old-fashioned solution for dealing with its always-clogged roads: encouraging people to ride bicycles.

The Home Affairs Ministry announced a campaign Monday to promote bicycle use as a way to cope with traffic, pollution and soaring oil prices. The ministry said it will seek to increase the number of bicycle-only roads and bicycle racks, along with revising related ordinances.

"The important role of bicycles as a commuting means for students and workers over short distances has disappeared due to a sharp increase in the number of automobiles following rapid growth in the national economy and income in the late 1970s," the ministry said.

Promoting more bicycle use is also aimed at promoting a healthy society, it said.

The ministry said it expects one in every four South Koreans to own a bicycle by 2015, up from about one in every seven. About 60 percent of Japanese, 74 percent of Germans and 75 percent of the Dutch own a bicycle, according to the ministry.