Korean Job Discussion Forums

[wolverine]

Hello everyone,

My wifey is a civil servant in Gyeonggi, she wants to submit some ideas, new things or changes that could be made in Korea to make life better for everyone, to her bosses. Not sure what type of influence she'll have, but apparently the people up top are open to listening to new suggestions or ideas. Just wanted to get some foreigner ideas and input, so please fire anyway. [/b]

[coralreefer_1]

Just one small thing~

We all know traffic is bad here. I wont get into the statistics of accidents, but I think many could agree that driving would be FAR less stressful if traffic laws were enforced and the fines were high enough to actually make people think twice. Literally if I take a 10 minute drive I will probably see at least 5 cars out there with non-functioning brake lights. I do not understand why it would be so difficult for police to patrol in their cars (geez they have the little matiz police cars so i know it cant be a fuel-expense thing) and start ticketing people for aggressive driving, running red lights, failure to maintain a safe vehicle (brake lights) etc.

Also...I think a bus driver should be fined and points added to his license if they are not in the 2 rightmost lanes. I cant stand it to see an aggressive and rude bus driver cut across 4 lanes of traffic to get in the left lane and slow everyone else down behind him only to have to pull all the way back across to the right to pickup/let off passengers 100 meters farther down he road. I can appreciate bus drivers wanting to get passengers where they need to go quickly, but not at the expense of the safety and flow of traffic everyone else on the road with their erratic driving.

Also..one more on the traffic. This is a country with SOO much technology..so it would be great if stop lights were run on sensors that measure traffic flow rather than an absolute timer. There are so many cases where there are roads where the main traffic is stopped for a crossroad completely void of traffic. Same with crosswalks...if there is no road but simply a crosswalk, the light should not stop traffic unless there is actually a pedestrian there to push the button to cross.

Doing the above would do quite a bit to preserve the precious gas that so many have to pay so much for. It is so wasteful to be cruising along at 80kpm and have to stop on some deserted highway through farms for a traffic light that allows traffic from the tiniest country farm access road which almost never has a car or plow needing to get out, wait 45 seconds..then start again. I am not sure of the science behind gasoline consumption from stop to cruising speed, or gasoline consumed during the idle position...but surely if traffic flow could be controlled for efficiently Korea may be able to reduce its oil imports.

[Yaya]

[Junior]

establish some nature reserves designed to protect the country's wildlife.
Re-introduce Tigers and bears into them. Let natural scenery take over and stop concreting everywhere.

[eamo]

[swashbuckler]

[interestedinhanguk]

If we did that to bus drivers they would either quit or require a much higher salary.

[jdsolo]

Instead of shutting down the subways from 12am-5:30am, shut it down from 4am-5am.

Or if possible, make subways run 24/7

[computermichael]

Put in some garbage cans, especially in parks. Are they so scarce because people won't use them, or is it more efficient to just get an ajosshi to sweep up the trash littered about?

Also, toilet paper in public bathrooms is generally nice. I know that sometimes I like to wipe my ass and don't remember to bring any when I have to pinch a log. I'm sure it's worse for women since they have more things to wipe.

Dumpsters would be another good innovation here. Having a box to put the huge, festering trash pile in has certain advantages such as keeping cats away and containing the smell. This one will definitely never happen, so it's more of an observation than a suggestion.

There should also be some kind of law about not having twenty buildings together that all look the same. Maybe the kids would be more creative if every building weren't black, white, or gray surrounded by dozens of other buildings that look identical. It wouldn't take too much extra effort to paint a building purple or add a wacky looking chimney here and there. Maybe it would make some kid feel like he's not linked into the borg hive mind every once in awhile.

[jrwhite82]

I second the stricter enforcement of traffic law. I hate to say it, but it feels kind of 3rd World when you drive around in this country. Instead of driving like maniacs on scooters, most people drive like maniacs in their cars. Plus you still have the scooters...but they are almost more crazy because there are so many cars.

How about throwing up red-light cameras every where. These will have an AMAZING return on investment. Either generating ticket revenue or preventing accidents and deaths. It is a win-win. Keep the ticket cost low to around 50,000W, no points. Automatic fine to the owner of the car. And you can't get out of it by saying someone else drove my car.

[normalperson]

What personally pisses me off as more of a walking person is the extremly bad footpaths and random cracks everywhere. Probably from all the cars randomly driving on them...

[Caffeinated]

Along the lines of with sensors for traffic lights, how about sensors to coordinate multiple elevators?

How about an electric grid on the ground so that an electric shock travels from the spit back to the spitter's mouth?

[BoholDiver]

Agreed about drivers. Korean roads are awful. It gives Korea an image of an undeveloped country.

I'd love to see an end to the monopoly of 4 or 5 companies controlling this whole country and price fixing low quality prices while blocking imports.

Also plz tell 2MB that a stronger Korean won, while bad for his buddies at Samsung, is good for most of Korea's 48 million citizens.

[Steelrails]

^ Uhm, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that a waygook website?

Anyways, making Korea better in ways that can be done....

Oh btw, is this Gyeongi-specific?

1)Consider increasing (double?) the price of garbage bags and use that to increase public trash service for wastebaskets and recycling bins. The cost of the bags is low enough that no one should be really hurt. Certainly such a thing would boast Korea's image in the eyes of tourists.

2)Explore the feasibility of past-midnight subways service on certain lines on Friday and Saturday nights. Seoul is a place for nightlife. This sort of thing might promote more late-night consumption and commerce.

3)Explore the feasibility of adding an express line from ICN to the South Side of Seoul, say Gangnam. Perhaps to Yeouido as well.

4)Explore the feasibility of express lines on the normal subway routes that connect Seoul and satellite cities or perhaps some of the busiest stations.

5)Ambitious but it certainly would boost Korea's image and promote E-Commerce would be to turn certain neighborhoods in Seoul into giant public wireless Internet zones. Public broadband on a large scale would be difficult and potentially very costly, but the potential in such an enterprise would be intriguing. Worth a study at least.

Best of luck!

[bobbybigfoot]

(1) Longer subway hours. Close from 3 to 5 for maintenance.

(2) Enforce traffic laws. Tired of drivers running red lights, pushing through crosswalks when people are crossing.

(3) Teach bus drivers how to drive a standard or buy buses that aren't so gawd awful to ride on.

(4) Have a national campaign to teach Koreans how to make a proper cup of drip coffee.

(5) Make it a policy that Korean Immigration only hires intelligent people.