The Seoul Metropolitan Government's push for this policy begins with an attempt to narrow the gap between the changed perception of the elderly and their actual living patterns. According to the Ministry of Health and Welfare's latest survey on the elderly, the age at which people consider themselves elderly has already reached 71.6, leaving a significant gap with the current legal standard of 65. In addition, as the economic activity participation rate of the population aged 65 and older has increased significantly compared to the past, the view of the elderly as social subjects is spreading, moving away from the perspective of simply viewing them as objects of protection. Based on these changes in social consensus, Seoul City is making clear its determination to re-establish the efficiency of transportation welfare in line with the aging era.

The core of this policy is the ‘selection and concentration’ strategy that converts the resources secured by raising the subway free riding age into the introduction of free riding on buses. It has been consistently pointed out that subway-centered transportation welfare creates blind spots in benefits for seniors living in areas far from subway stations. In fact, the older the population, the more they prefer buses for daily short-distance travel, such as visiting hospitals or purchasing groceries, and those over 90 years old are highly dependent on buses, with the bus use rate reaching 37.8%. Therefore, this reform plan contains a plan to guarantee more practical mobility rights to seniors in areas with low subway accessibility.

Elaborate design is in progress regarding specific support methods and target selection. Rather than providing indiscriminate benefits, the city of Seoul is considering ways to fill blind spots while avoiding overlap with existing national support measures such as the ‘K-Pass’. In particular, the plan is to set seniors who use public transportation less than 15 times a month as key targets for bus fare support and provide substantial fare refund benefits to those who absolutely need to travel. This can be interpreted as a reasonable approach to maximize the effect of tax input by analyzing the frequency of use and actual transportation demand, rather than simply expanding the target audience for free riding.

This movement of change is also becoming visible through local councils. The Seoul Metropolitan Council's Transportation Committee has already passed an ordinance expanding support for public transportation fares for seniors to buses, and is about to be voted on at the plenary session. Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon also expressed his strong will to pursue this policy, defining it as essential infrastructure that supports healthy daily life and social participation, rather than simply welfare support. However, as the sensitive topic of raising the age for free subway riding is included, it is expected that the values ​​of equity between generations, financial soundness, and guaranteeing the mobility rights of the transportation disadvantaged will fiercely clash and adjust at the public hearing to be held in the future.