“Happy Car Share,” a free service for sharing public vehicles, will be introduced in Goyang City from July 28.

Launched in May 2016, Happy Car Share is a free service that allows residents to use public vehicles that are otherwise unutilized on weekends or holidays.

The service had been temporarily operated in cities and counties of Gyeonggi Province over the holidays; Goyang City, however, has become the second area in the province to also offer these services on weekends after Yangpyeong County launched weekend services in January this year. The province is promoting the expansion of the service to more cities and counties to avoid a concentration of supporting vehicles in specific areas.

A total of thirteen supporting vehicles are available for rental in the Public Vehicle Management Room of Goyang City Hall, situated in Deogyang-gu.

This service can be used by residents of Goyang who are members of specific demographic groups: basic livelihood recipients, near poverty groups, multicultural families, single-parent families, North Korean refugees, or multi-child families (families with three or more children under 18 years of age according to the Family Relationship Registration).

Applications can be made on the Happy Car Share website (happycar.gg.go.kr).

A Gyeonggi Provincial Government official commented, “Goyang only had one service vehicle managed by Gyeonggi Province, so the proportion of residents who were unable to use the vehicle, although they had applied for it, has always been significantly higher than that of other areas. Gyeonggi Province will encourage cities and counties to expand this service so that more residents can enjoy Happy Car Share.”

Meanwhile, between May 2016 and the end of June this year, a total of 17,931 residents used 3,882 public vehicles through the Happy Car Share service in Gyeonggi Province. On a monthly average, 690 people used 149 cars.