Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Real Reality]

South Korea has the largest number of car accidents and the largest death toll from them among members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD),... "South Koreans jaywalk more than other OECD members,..."
By Kim Rahn, Korea Times (December 27, 2005)
http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/nation/200512/kt2005122717555911960.htm

[thekingofdisco]

No surprises there for anybody who lives in Korea....

However, on this quote I am surprised:

[philipjames]

Can you believe that that article is actually trying to blame jaywalkers for the high accident rate?Anyone who has lived in Korea for more than an hour knows that it is the driving that is the problem. Drivers simply do not feel any obligation to follow any rule of the road. I've come close to being seriously injured by motor vehicles in Korea on numerous occasions. And I'll tell ya. I wasn't jaywalking.

[kat2]

Do Koreans actually jaywalk? I do it all the time (after looking both ways of course), and always get the "you crazy foreigner" look from the Koreans patiently waiting at the crossing, even though there is not a car in sight. They only seem to jaywalk after they see me do it. Without the green man telling them its ok to walk, how would they know to do it by themselves?

[fidel]

As a driver, I would say that pedestrians have to take some of the blame. People wander all of the streets seemingly oblivious to the dangers that vehicular traffic poses. I have had dozens of close calls and am constantly amazed at the antics of some people on the road.

[RACETRAITOR]

In Seoul I've found that jaywalking isn't very common, even if the light takes five minutes and there are no cars coming.

[philthy]

[manlyboy]

What exactly constitutes jaywalking in Korea anyway? I've seen people run down, and almost been run down myself a few times, while crossing the street LEGALLY.

[RACETRAITOR]

I remember once I was on my scooter in Itaewon, about to turn onto the main road from a sidestreet. I was waiting at a red light so it wasn't a small pedestrian street.

When all of a sudden some moron waeg walks onto the street and screams in my ear. He obviously thought I was Korean. I turned to him and said "What in the *beep* was that?"

He was surprised at being caught by a person who could understand him, and managed to yell "Get off the sidewalk!"

I pointed at the red light in front of me and said "You get off the road."

If I wasn't afraid for damage to my scooter I would've given him a steel-toed dental exam.

[n3ptne]

Seriously... if you get hit by a car and die while jaywalking, I'm glad you're gone... you weren't intelligent enough to have kids.

I jaywalk all the time, never even came close to getting hit by a car, and if you can't figure out a similarly viable system, and can't be intelligent enough to realize what a dumbass you are and decide NOT to jaywalk, and then get hit by a car WHILE jaywalking? Well, social darwinism at it's best and the divine comedy of life continues.

...Personally I think God makes dumb people to give himself something to laugh at.

[bluelake]

The international crowd has complained about Korean traffic for as long as I can remember. I've thought about it a lot over the years, and have complained a bit myself (I even wrote a Korea Times letter to the editor about fifteen years ago).

Over twenty years ago, cars were not commonly owned in Korea. For the most part, if you had a car you were either rich or a taxi driver; I knew only a few others who had one. It's kind of interesting, as it seems like car ownership changed Korean perceptions of life. In the days when few people had a car, they were never in a hurry; if someone needed to go someplace, they walked, rode a bike, or took mass transportation. For the most part, they had little control over how long it took to get somewhere. Korean Time then meant that if you had an 8 p.m. dinner appointment, the person might show up at 9 p.m. or later. Foreigners had a hard time with that (myself included), but it was considered natural by Koreans. When cars started becoming more common in the mid- to late-80s, Korean habits started to change; they then realized that they had the power to push the gas pedal down and get someplace faster. More and more Koreans became more punctual, but the accident rate increased, too. It became a lot like the old Disney cartoon about the Jekyl/Hyde character, in regards to driving; outside the vehicle, the person would give someone the shirt off his back--inside the car, he would become another person, in his own world.

I've probably seen it all, like the bus driver who was tired of waiting for traffic, so he sped his bus through a rice field. The previously mentioned letter to the KT had to do with other absurdities of driving. A Korean friend of mine stated that professional drivers had more rights than others on the road, because that was how they made their living. I let him know that my safely getting to my office and back home again was how I made mine. I was also tired of motorcycles on the sidewalk (they were doing that long before I came on the Korean scene in the early 80s), uninsured ���� (the cultivator-type tractors farmers use) being used as the rural family vehicle in the city (also the home-built trucks), and a myriad of other things. However, back to the former problem of so-called professional drivers, I saw time after time a double-standard; the pd's would speed through red traffic lights, in full-view of police, while the family car was pulled over. The same was true for other traffic offences. Most serious traffic accidents I've seen over the years involved at least one pd.

Nowadays, I still gripe about the pd's speeding through traffic lights (especially when I had a left-turn arrow--they just flash their lights, as though they were the modern version of a ����(the medallions used by Korean officials of old to travel unhindered)). Also, big trucks in the left lane are a nuisance; you can't see what's happening in front of them, like the traffic light situation. The list goes on. Probably, someone will be having similar complaints a hundred years from now.

Another problem is the endless line of new drivers being cranked out, along with the endless line of cars. In a country with a finite amount of space, it's a problem. Did you ever notice that there are certain types of cars owned by the beginning (�ʺ�) drivers? It started with the Pride in the 80s, and continued on with the Tico in the early 90s, right up to the present day with the frequently indistinguishable high top (they remind me of the old high top gym sneakers) cars--Matiz, Atoz, etc. The drivers are taught by driving instructors who learned from others right down the line, who in turn learned aggressive driving from pd's a couple decades ago. I watched instructors give their students directions such as how to blow through a red light (it was my right-of-way at the time). No wonder many Korean drivers drive the way they do.

As for pedestrians/jaywalkers, I think it is ingrained from a very early age. Kids are allowed to wander everywhere, unsupervised, from a very early age; playing in traffic is considered natural. Kids are oblivious to vehicular traffic; they will walk right down the middle of a road with cars blowing their horns at them, paying no attention. They dart out into the street without looking at traffic. And yet, if a driver hits them, no matter what the circumstances are, the driver is at fault.

The list from the past two decades could go on and on. Still, I'm no saint when it comes to driving. I found out early on that in order to not cause accidents, a driver had to be somewhat aggressive. I try to be a patient and good driver, but it's hard sometimes. If nothing else, it gives me a little perspective about the other driver. Another problem comes when I visit back to the States; it takes me a couple days to become a more defensive driver.

O.K., enough of my gripes...