Korean Job Discussion Forums

[pest2]

OK, I'm sure even people here w/out cars have at least taken taxis. So I am wondering what yawl think about this:

Most people think, generally, that Korean drivers are some of the rudest, most dangerous in the world. Maybe this is because most people in Korea haven't been driving very long or maybe because police enforcement methods are so lame?
But I've been driving here now for a while and I'm beginning to see at least part of the reason its like that. For one thing, stop signs are few and far between. Instead, cars have 'stoptionals' -- like solid white you (might be able to) see that indicates a stop. But ppl usually disregard them unless doing so means hitting some 90 year old ajuma crossing the street. Also, there are never turn lanes, shoulders, places to park. It's like, In USA, our fish tank water is nice and clean so we swim freely and kindly in it. But in Korea, the fish tank water is crappy so we swim restricted and rudely? Is that a bad metaphor?

Also, I had a friend here a while back who is a civil engineering professor. He was teaching masters candidate Korean students about how to design roads and highways. He told me that he was "very disappointed" that most or all of his students would have failed his course at University of AZ but he had to pass them here because the department board at the Uni in Suwon took "bribes" from the students parents so they could pass. (you know, students in Korea study hard in HS and become lazy in uni)... so maybe the ppl who design things here are under-educated?

[capebretoncanadian]

When you see clearly marked lanes on the streets and highways that people routinely drift in and out of without signalling or looking...IMO the biggest problem here, it's hard to blame the planners.

[HapKi]

I would say inner-city driving is bad in most cities, but Seoul has less space than most. Combined with the fact that I must share the road with all commercial vehicles- dump trucks, construction trucks, garbage trucks, delivery trucks, grandma with her trolley stacked with cardboard- all driving the same streets and parked in the right hand lane. Back in the States, we have back alleys and loading zones for that kind of stuff. (The new bus lanes are good in this regard.) So part of it is space.

Korean drivers are offensive, where Western are much more defensive- plus polite. I hate it when a Korean will pull out in front of me, thinking he has every right to do so. If I don't apply brake, I hit him, and he knows it. Plus it would be my fault.

Driving in Seoul requires REaction skills.

[HapKi]

[BigBlackEquus]

Yes, Seoul is a madhouse to drive in.

Basically, the Confucian habits of ignoring strangers while walking (and bumping into them, etc) follow them when they start driving.

[cubanlord]

hahahhaha. speaking of which, did you ever try that for yourself? I mean, if someone bangs right into you when there is plenty of space to go around you, you do the same? LOL. Talk about the "nasty" foreigner. hahahhaha

[laogaiguk]

[HapKi]

[pest2]