Korean Job Discussion Forums

[IlIlNine]

For the record, I too am still on two wheels.

I don't often ride on the sidewalk, mostly because there are too many people to make it worthwhile. That said, if there are only a few people here and there, it's no problem to quickly slalom through them - helps me improve my riding skills. If there are kids on the sidewalk, I'll make sure not to hit them... I only came close a couple of times, so I'm sure that I'm a safe rider.





(Watches CC's head explode)

[nautilus]

Predictably the new regulations have had zero effect.

What is needed is masive fines and also cash rewards given to those who can photograph transgressors and their license plates in the act.

[Brooksmatic]

I would say the majority of people I've seen (excluding delivery drivers) that park that their bikes/scooters on the sidewalk get on to the sidewalk at very low speeds and are not unsafe about parking there. Of course there are exceptions but I generally see people being pretty safe about at least the parking aspect of being on a sidewalk with two wheels.

Driving on the sidewalk can be pretty dangerous and I only do it if I'm sitting at a red light and see no one on the sidewalk. That's just a shortcut.

[Bibbitybop]

[Captain Corea]

Jogging on the sidewalk does not include 400lbs of steel and hot engine parts.

[v88]

Korean sidewalks are unfortunately a necesity for many riders in Korea.

While I support a ban on riding on sidewalks, I think it won't last due to the way much of Korea has been built. Infrastructure needs to be changed first before such a thing can truly happen.

And for the record, bikes and cars are different beasts. Bikes do deserve special consideration within both law and the built city. Sometimes they deserve more ticketing, sometimes they deserve more protection. All bikers aren't the same and a bike isn't ultimately a death machine. To me a car is the real enemy and parking on the sidewalk reduces pressure in parking lots (where no space for bikes is provided) as well as can be a safe zone for smaller displacement bikes (which aren't too much different than bicycles...but as we a ll know, bicycles need bike lanes too, as they can be unsafe for pedestrians as well). Taiwan has bike lanes all around Taipai. China is absolutely friggin amazing...of course they are all riding bicycles and not 1000000cc hogs, but this kind of infrastucture suits small sized motorcycles and even bigger ones to an extent (as in provides parking).


Cars, and people do mix in all kinds of places in the city, there are many mixed streets in cities all over the world. This sort of thinking needs a little more attention here in Korea where congestion, lack of parking and road space is really a problem. Bikes reduce congestion, demand on parking and ultimately are far safer to the pedestrian than a car...or SUV, bus or taxi...take your pick.

Honestly, just placing the yearly ban on bikes on the sidewalk doesn't solve the problem, there are just too many cases where its needed and impossible to avoid. This is something that has been abused by a small number of rider here in Korea and given the rest of us a bad name.

I ride my bike on the sidewalk when needed and have no problems being safe around people...including children.

[Bibbitybop]

[Underwaterbob]

[TheUrbanMyth]

[Captain Corea]

[ThingsComeAround]

From '08, eh?

I wish they'd enact a law forbidding cars to park on the sidwalk first

[machinoman]

I found this thread because I am a newb still adjusting to the motorcycle situation here. The other day, I was listening to my ipod as I crossed a small street. Not really even a street, but an entrance to an apartment parking area. I made sure to look for any cars or traffic before crossing. I was about half way across when a delivery motorcycle flew past me, about 1 foot in front of my face. Up until that point, I found the traffic problems in Korea to be comical, but that really freaked me out.

There were crosswalk lines, so I was really confused by what happened at the time. I understand that Sooyun Kim needed her chicken McNugget fix ASAP, but Jesus Titty-f***ing Christ... I since realized that the crosswalk lines here don't really mean anything, and its important to cross the street while listening to music in only one ear, both eyes constantly scanning all directions for renegade deliverymen. After that day seeing motorcycles driving full-speed on the sidewalks became particularly annoying to me.

Last week was the worst. I was about to walk around a corner, on the sidewalk, right next to my house. Just before I got to the corner, a motorcycle flew past me from around the corner, about five feet in front of my face. He had driven full speed, on the sidewalk, around the corner as a 2 second shortcut. This time I was a lot more angry. When I cross the street I can be careful, but there is not a thing I can do walking around a corner. Its like rolling the dice each week, on my way to Lottemart.

It is interesting to see some posters on this board mentioning personal freedoms, and how this problem only exists in the minds of 'pissy foreigners'. In my experience, every Korean person I have talked with also agrees this is a problem. Their defense of the situation, if any at all, is "there is nothing the police can do about it." I think in this particular case, there needs to be some kind of a permanently upheld fine for these violations. I also think that the suggestion another poster made about rewards for videotaped violations is a completely brilliant idea.

Don't get me wrong, I love the personal freedoms in Korea. Many of them are the same freedoms I enjoyed in Japan, even to a greater extent. In Seoul, drinking in public is essentially acceptable as in Tokyo, where it is even acceptable to flat out drink on the subway (don't judge, I was in college). There were beer and sake vending machines EVERYWHERE. I support reasonable freedoms. I don't mind stepping over passed out adjoshis, and I could care less when a motorcyclist parks on the sidewalk safely. What would be nice though, is to be able to walk around a corner without needing a mirror affixed to a long wooden stick.

[Spike]

It will go over as well as the "walk on the right side" campaign in all of the subway stations..

In other words, it won't.

[Hank the Iconoclast]

What about bicycles on sidewalks? Here in Gyeongju, if I don't, I would most likely get run over by a bus or taxi.

[megandadam]