Today was a crazy day for me. This morning as I'm walking down a narrow street near Nakseongdae Station, with no sidewalks and two cars parked on the right side, I hear this car driving down the hill fast and heading toward me. I couldn't get out of the way immediately because of the cars on my right and no sidewalk to my left, but as soon as I got space, I moved over to the right side. Then I tapped the car that was barreling down behind me as he started to pass me. An older Korean man responds with a "Ne?" ("Yes?" but more like "What?"). I told him in Korean to go slowly. He responds by calling me a Korean expletive translated as "dog baby". It's about the equivalency of calling me a son of a bitch. He drove off. It didn't register to me what he called me until after he drove away since he didn't say it loudly. I'm a bit glad it didn't process in my mind right away because I didn't want to get more upset. I'm usually a passive person, but rudeness drives me crazy. Pun intended.
Then while I was walking along a crosswalk on the main road in Gangnam on my way to church, with 10 seconds left on the countdown of the walk sign, a woman almost hit me because she was obviously trying to get a head start. She didn't realize I was there and when she saw me look at her, she waved her hand as to apologize to me. At least I give her credit for that.
Finally as I was about to reach church while walking to New Harvest Ministry, another older Korean man starts backing out of a parking lot. Three members from my church were walking and were almost hit by this guy that was trying to hurry up and back out of the parking lot. With cars on both sides of the street and five pedestrians in total walking down this street, his impatience was very dangerous.
I'm really sick and tired of seeing people in Seoul drive erratically. Here are some examples:
a. I see people texting while driving at least once a week.
b. I see people driving while talking on their cell phones at least once a day.
c. I see taxi drivers 4-5 times a day honking their horns because they can't wait 30 seconds as the driver in front of them is waiting for people in front of him or her to cross the street.
d. I see bus drivers not waiting for passengers to sit down before they drive off like madmen.
e. I see people run for the bus but don't get on because the bus driver is in a hurry to move on to the next stop.
I understand that drivers in Seoul are much better than drivers in just about every major city in China. But come on. China is a communist country with lack of real freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and freedom of expression. If Seoul wants to be an international city and if South Korea wants to get the "developing" label exchanged for "developed", then traffic laws need to be enforced. Cameras are not enough. Most cars have GPS systems that detect them, so what's the point? There must be more traffic cops and they need more power. Police officers in Seoul are the polar opposite of officers in the U.S. Officers in the U.S. get a decent salary with benefits and sometimes have too much power. In Korea, police officers get paid little, have few benefits, and have little power.
But don't take my word for it, check out an expat site that gives driving tips for those moving to Korea. You'll get more of an idea how poor the drivers are here. The site is Korea4Expats.com and the driving tips can be found here.
Scott Worden (The L.A./Seoul Guy)
Instagram: l.a.seoulguy
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