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Eedoryeong
Joined: 10 Dec 2007
Location: Jeju
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 Posted: Sun Jul 11, 2010 5:03 pm Post subject: Driving in Korea |
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I drive in Korea. As you know, Korean roads can sometimes be dangerous places to drive. Although most drivers are safe, many drivers are impatient and take adventurous risks. Please drive carefully. And please help me make sure every driver in Korea has the chance to see this. You might save somebody you love by doing so.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvYuUpQuea8
It would be good if every speeder or traffic ignorer was made to watch this video before paying their ticket. This *needs* to be seen by Korean drivers (well all drivers everywhere, but I'm in Korea after all.) |
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Underwaterbob
Joined: 08 Jan 2005
Location: In Cognito
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| Posted: Sun Jul 11, 2010 6:05 pm Post subject: |
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| This is a lesson to us all: if you mix brutal, real car crashes with blatantly fake staged ones for your anti-bad-driving video, the result is more of a funny spectacle rather than being informative in any way. |
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Eedoryeong
Joined: 10 Dec 2007
Location: Jeju
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| Posted: Sun Jul 11, 2010 8:05 pm Post subject: |
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| I think you've missed the point - the staged ones could easily be re-enactments and are highly feasible. |
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Ruthdes
Joined: 16 Oct 2008
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Sun Jul 11, 2010 8:32 pm Post subject: |
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The Traffic Accident Commission in Australia has been doing ads with shock tactics for about 20 years. They're MUCH more realistic, and better acted than this clip, and don't have the sad music - they have the actual sounds from the scene. Search youtube for tac ads australia to get a sample. Here is one to get you started if you're interested.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4mvtNU32kQ&feature=related |
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sheriffadam
Joined: 10 May 2010
Location: Busan
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| Posted: Sun Jul 11, 2010 8:41 pm Post subject: |
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lesson learned = car crashes can be fun to watch, but not with a massively dire soundtrack, for a more pleasurable experience I suggest the mute button...
and oh yes shock horror cars are dangerous, everyone already knows this, but it won't stop people driving like asshats, some people are stupid. Videos like this don't help, if they did they wouldn't be any crashes on the roads, but there still are, its life.
/edit: the above video does contain aussie clips, all mixed in and ruined.... |
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Ruthdes
Joined: 16 Oct 2008
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Sun Jul 11, 2010 10:29 pm Post subject: |
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| sheriffadam wrote: |
lesson learned = car crashes can be fun to watch, but not with a massively dire soundtrack, for a more pleasurable experience I suggest the mute button...
and oh yes shock horror cars are dangerous, everyone already knows this, but it won't stop people driving like asshats, some people are stupid. Videos like this don't help, if they did they wouldn't be any crashes on the roads, but there still are, its life.
/edit: the above video does contain aussie clips, all mixed in and ruined.... |
Hmmm...I didn't watch the whole way through so I didn't see the Aussie ones. The silent acting at the start was so bad I couldn't stand it for very long. Nothing like the drop of the shoulders of the truck driver at the end of the one I posted.
I would beg to differ that these ads don't work. In the 20 years since they started screening these ads in Oz, the road toll has halved in Victoria (my state). Obviously, this isn't just due to the ads. Better enforcement, safer cars, and improved roads help, but I think that it does have some effect. Every Victorian knows those ads, and while people laugh and mock them (Aussies: who hasn't said in jest "Katie...bend your knees...let yourself down slowly.."?), they do make you think. Yes, some people will still drive like asshats, the fewer who do, the safer our roads are for everyone.
To bring it back to being relevant to the general forum, ads like this could have a positive effect in Korea. They would need to be adapted to the Korean context - more city driving, etc, but maybe it would make some drivers think. The problem is that Korean ads are too hammy and OTT, and the director would have to avoid that for them to be effective. |
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sheriffadam
Joined: 10 May 2010
Location: Busan
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| Posted: Mon Jul 12, 2010 4:19 am Post subject: |
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| its not even the law to wear a seatbelt in the back of a car here ffs, they have a looooong way to go to before learning about braking distances and looking where you're going... even if those are such basic things. |
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Savant
Joined: 25 May 2007
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| Posted: Mon Jul 12, 2010 6:19 am Post subject: |
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| sheriffadam wrote: |
| its not even the law to wear a seatbelt in the back of a car here ffs, they have a looooong way to go to before learning about braking distances and looking where you're going... even if those are such basic things. |
Hell, how about just not letting your Kid clamber all around the car unsupervised. I'm sure we've all seen the Korean parents who let their children children stand on the seats with their head sticking out of the sunroof or windows.
I remember just a few weeks ago when I was riding the bus of seeing a well-to-do Korean mother driving with her young son sitting on her lap. The mother, of course, wasn't wearing a seat-belt either.
This is common sense, which is sadly not built into the Korean gene pool. |
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Eedoryeong
Joined: 10 Dec 2007
Location: Jeju
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| Posted: Mon Jul 12, 2010 8:03 pm Post subject: |
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Well, what struck me about the clip was how accurately it depicts the impatient, anxiety-driven shenanigans of just about every Korean black-car-driver in this country. I've done enough highway driving to know when the black sedans come, something stupid is going to happen. I swear they must have some kind of sphynctometer personality test on the car lot just to be eligible to buy one of those damn things - the checking around the truck for an open lane, the creative 'thinking outside the box' illegal car-passing... it's dead on. We're all in such a hurry to get to the red light, but only a portion of the drivers here even stop. I think a video like this could be very useful here.
What I don't get are the reply posts that allude to it being entertainment. If you can watch that clip and laugh, the state should be able to come to your house and sterilize you for the good of the country. |
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toiletgod2000
Joined: 18 Jun 2008
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| Posted: Mon Jul 12, 2010 8:53 pm Post subject: |
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Am I the only person who actually enjoys driving in this country? I can drive as fast as I feel prudent until I'm warned by GPS about a camera. If the light is red and no one is coming, it's ok to go through. If the car fits, it's generally ok to drive there...lane or not.
Driving here requires a state of hyper-vigilance, so I like it...it's more of a challenge. Even if your light is green, you should make sure that no one is going to run it. You absolutely have to avoid driving in blind spots because half the people don't know how to turn their heads to check. When turning right you have to make sure that some chicken guy hasn't squeezed in next to you. I've adapted to all of these behaviors. The only thing that really angers me is that there is no sense of the left lane as a fast lane. |
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CentralCali
Joined: 17 May 2007
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| Posted: Mon Jul 12, 2010 8:58 pm Post subject: |
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| sheriffadam wrote: |
| its not even the law to wear a seatbelt in the back of a car here ffs, they have a looooong way to go to before learning about braking distances and looking where you're going... even if those are such basic things. |
Actually, the RTA says all occupants of the vehicle are required to wear safety restraints. That the vast majority of people don't follow it and that the police don't enforce the law doesn't mean it's not the case. |
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CentralCali
Joined: 17 May 2007
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| Posted: Mon Jul 12, 2010 9:01 pm Post subject: |
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| Eedoryeong wrote: |
| Well, what struck me about the clip was how accurately it depicts the impatient, anxiety-driven shenanigans of just about every Korean black-car-driver in this country. |
While my car was in the shop for some maintenance, I took a cab to work. An Equus cut us off and the driver cursed. I asked the driver if he liked Equus. His answer was, "Of course not. Do you?" I told him I don't like Equus because of the drivers. He then said, "Me, too!"
What is it? Do those drivers think that the color of the car or the name of the model will change the laws of physics? |
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Ruthdes
Joined: 16 Oct 2008
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Mon Jul 12, 2010 9:17 pm Post subject: |
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| Eedoryeong wrote: |
| What I don't get are the reply posts that allude to it being entertainment. If you can watch that clip and laugh, the state should be able to come to your house and sterilize you for the good of the country. |
Most people laugh because it masks their true feelings about the message and it's implications. Not because the actually think it's funny. We make fun of them sometimes, but it would be a hardened character who wasn't somewhat touched by a well-made car crash ad.
| CentralCali wrote: |
| Actually, the RTA says all occupants of the vehicle are required to wear safety restraints. That the vast majority of people don't follow it and that the police don't enforce the law doesn't mean it's not the case. |
It's only law for all occupants to wear a seat belt on the express ways. Driving on normal roads, only the front seat occupants need to wear one. The point still stands though. There are so many things I read when I was studying for the written test that I laughed at because hardly any drivers here follow them. I was driving on Jeju Island last week and was stopped at red lights in 80km/h zones, watching other cars hurtle through the red lights like they were green....scary.
I'm new to driving in this country (and yet to do it on the mainland, but I will), and a few of my friends couldn't believe that I'd be game to drive here. I do like the challenge of being an alert and assertive driver though, and I'm looking forward to renting a car sometime and getting out of the city. |
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CentralCali
Joined: 17 May 2007
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| Posted: Mon Jul 12, 2010 9:39 pm Post subject: |
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| Ruthdes wrote: |
| It's only law for all occupants to wear a seat belt on the express ways. Driving on normal roads, only the front seat occupants need to wear one. |
Right. I keep forgetting that the law merely requires the driver off the expressway to "call on" other passengers to wear the seatbelt. In my vehicle, my law is I'm not moving the vehicle until and unless all passengers are buckled up.
Oddly enough, it seems to me that the drivers on the expressway are much better drivers than those on the surface streets. Of course, there is still the occasional jackass who thinks he has to follow at 5 cm behind someone who has the nerve to actually be driving on "his road."
I'd only been driving for about two years when I first came to Korea and I drove immediately after that. In Seoul. The driving quality of the general population has dropped since that time, IMHO. |
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sheriffadam
Joined: 10 May 2010
Location: Busan
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| Posted: Mon Jul 12, 2010 11:27 pm Post subject: |
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| CentralCali wrote: |
| Ruthdes wrote: |
| It's only law for all occupants to wear a seat belt on the express ways. Driving on normal roads, only the front seat occupants need to wear one. |
my law is I'm not moving the vehicle until and unless all passengers are buckled up.
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Dam straight! I hear you there! |
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