Seoul, KOREA ¶ Mar 5, 2012 (Whowired) – The Seoul Metropolitan government announced on March 4 that it would begin a whole new bicycle learning program for safe ride starting this March. Since 2009, the government has administered the bicycle riding program without regard to age or ride-skill differences, which the city government officials reckon led to many road accidents.

For example, the city hall offered in 2011 learning programs at 75 elementary schools for as many as 28,182 children while training 28,050 citizens through bicycle cl asses. This year, in contrast, the city traffic safety authorities will divide the programs into 14 different categories by age group, skill level, and rider environment.

Whereas the bicycle riding programs have thus far focused on elementary school students, the new program will expand the target groups to middle school and high school students as well as preschoolers. The total number of those who will take the class will increase to 60,000.

Im Dong-Kuk, the official at the city government’s traffic authorities, said, “We will work hard to develop and implement safety programs for all age groups and skill levels so that no Seoul citizen would get hurt riding a bicycle.”

Sean Chung (press@whowired.com)