Korean Job Discussion Forums

[le-paul]

If youre anything like me, youve probably been inconvenienced or annoyed by some of the questionable parking skills in the South at some point during your sojourn.
However, the last few days I have gone outside and noticed that instead of cars littering the pavement and obstructing my safe passage, forcing me onto the busy road, there are cars littering the pavement obstructing my safe passage forcing me onto the busy road with spot fines posted onto the windscreens!

Good on you Korea!

[Weigookin74]

Is there a facebook group for that? The ops are trying to shame the bad parkers but it won't work.....

[nicwr2002]

I've noticed it down here in Jeollanam, too. So, far people still risk parking in the street, but it's really hard not to park illegally here. There's online one subway line that is completely useless to most of the city and a lot of buildings don't have parking decks. If they do have parking decks, it's reserved for the building staff/workers.

[basic69isokay]

In jeju they just park in the street. Right in rush hour.
Just throw on caution lights, bam the lane is now your personal parking space

[guavashake]

[Underwaterbob]

Good on Korea. Next up, I'd like to see an attempt to curb the actual number of cars in the country because the parking problems here aren't going to go away until the exorbitant number of cars do.

Too bad that's never going to happen because 90% (rough estimate, I'm sure LG, Wiselect, Shinsaegae and co also take their share) of the government is in Hyundai, Kia and Samsung's pocket.

[rainman3277]

If you can't beat'm, join'm, and I sure do.
I love the parking here and take full advantage of being able to park just about anywhere. I don't park on sidewalks or places that endanger pedestrians, but I find a nice free curb space and settle down.
Back home there is so much prohibited parking and fee'd parking its ridiculous. And that's in a city with 5million, not 20.

[Steelrails]

This is a problem with no solution beyond a housing collapse or massive government funding of parking structures.

People are going to own cars and cannot be stopped. The utility of owning a car makes it necessary for things like grocery shopping and family events. The lack of space (I think many expats fail to appreciate this and its impact on everything from housing costs- "Why do they all live in apartments and not houses with woods and a lake???" to food prices- "Why does food cost so much???") and the effect that has on parking space availability. And also, the price barriers to average people getting involved in the parking structure business.

The only non-government thing that would work is a crash in the real estate market, making property cheap. People could theoretically buy lots and turn them into paid parking. But rates are so high right now, that it is difficult for that to be profitable and the startup costs are prohibitive. If the concept fails, it will be near impossible to sell.

High ticketing and strict enforcement would merely turn the situation into an NYC-style laughing stock in which parking is nothing more than a game that serves to funnel money to the government, which is turn thrown construction "projects" which are little more than roundabout bribes to union employees in exchange for votes.

Strict enforcement doesn't stop this kind of thing in a big city like Seoul. It only raises costs to normal people. Delivery truck drivers will rack up hundreds of dollars in parking tickets a day, thousands a month, which are all taken by some company lawyer down to court at the end of the month and settled. These costs are of course passed on to the consumer.

The situation sucks, but most of the alternatives are worse. Is it worth it for the government to spend hundreds of millions of dollars building parking structures everywhere when that tax money could go to health care or education? And there's a good chance that the locations they build these in would be bad ones as bureaucratic planning and corruption would lead to moronic construction sites.

At the end of the day, compared to what else could take place, the status quo ain't that bad. I mean really, how inconvenient is it really?

[Chaparrastique]

[Underwaterbob]

There's something to be said for some kind of one car per household rule. I've seen families here with more square footage of vehicle interior than living space.

[le-paul]

[Steelrails]

[Sister Ray]

[nicwr2002]

Korea needs to allow private companies to be able to build train/subway lines. I think one of the reasons Japan has less of a traffic problem is the fact that they allow businesses to build and operate trains. The KTX shouldn't be the only train available to travel to different locations within Korea. There are zero train services that go to the smaller cities outside of the Seoul Metro area. In Gwangju they built a subway line that doesn't hit any of the major attractions and traffic congested areas. It doesn't even connect with the bus terminal!

With that being said, I do understand why people park the way they do. Having the phone numbers displayed is also good courtesy to give someone the option of moving out of your way. I know at my wife's mother's apartment they will put the car in neutral so that you can just push the car out of the way without having to call. So, almost everyone understands that space is limited, so they do these as a way of saying, "Sorry I have to park here, but I left you a way to move my car." However, you still get the *beep* who doesn't leave their phone number or put their car in neutral. When that happened to my wife and I, we just called the police and had them yell out their tag number until they finally heard it and came to move the car.

[Chaparrastique]