Koreans and motorized vehicles do not mix.

Just what is it with the idiots on the roads here? Are Koreans genetically stupid once they see pavement? I'm not trying to be a racist. I'm just basing these statements on what I have witnessed in slightly over five months here.

As I mentioned in a recent post, I was recently involved in a minor bus accident. It was quite busy on the multi-lane road, and the traffic was moving at a good pace. Who in their right mind decides to park a jeep in a lane on this road? The bus swerved at the last minute, and still nailed the jeep in the back corner.

Now, it certainly is possible that this person's jeep simply broke down on the road. If this was an isolated incident of someone parking a vehicle in a stupid place, then I'd assume that was the case. This was not an isolated incident. People in this country routinely park in the dumbest places. That bus stop over there? Some dumbass has his Kia Sportage parked there. Are you late for a meeting and you need to be somewhere, muy rapido? Good luck. Some asshole has double parked his 5 series BMW right beside your little Hyundai Click. Of course that's no problem, you can just call him on his cell phone and tell him to move his car before you key it. Koreans often leave their cell phone number on their car for when they decide to double park. In light of this, I really don't think that this guy who parked his jeep in the right lane of a busy road had a flat tire.

Motorists aren't the only dimwits on the road. Just last week, I almost hit an old lady trying to cross the street. She was being an fool. Even though the traffic was light, she had no excuse. This was a four-lane city road with a 70 km/h speed limit. I was riding my bike, and was a good distance away from any sort of road crossing; pedestrian or traffic. I was riding in the left lane and doing somewhere around 50 km/h. That was a good thing in this situation. This crazy ajumma (old lady) hadn't seemed to have grasped the concept of looking both ways before you cross the street. She walked right out in front of me. I honked the horn, and she looked at me light a deer caught in headlights on a rural Canadian road. Like that deer, she just stopped in her tracks and looked at me. Not wanting to swerve around her, because I didn't know if she was going to dart to the left or to theright, I stopped as fast as I could without wiping out. I came to a full stop about five feet in front of her. I swore at her in Korean and she just looked at me, then walked across the street. She did not look left or right as she proceeded to walk to the other side.

At the VERY NEXT INTERSECTION, I was stopped behind a taxi at a red light. At this point, the road had widened to six-lanes (three in each direction), plus a turning lane. The light turned green, and some idiot on a motorcycle who was supposed to be stopped at the red light to our left decided that red meant cut in front of the now moving traffic. The brainless biker didn't have a chance. He drove right in front of the taxi and got creamed. Glass and platic from the bike were flying in the air and the the biker was trapped under his bike, which was pinned down under the front of the cab. One of his legs looked pretty twisted. I saw an ambulence in the opposing lane, driving towards where I just was, about two minutes later. He had it coming.

Part of the problem is that you don't need any sort of a license to ride a motorcycle under 150cc. The other part of the problem is that the police don't do a thing about traffic violations.

In Korea, you really have to watch yourself when you walk down the sidewalk. You might get struck by a motorbike. They routinely ride on the sidewalks. Bikes often use pedestrian crosswalks to cross a busy street. I've seen bikes weave in and out of people on a crosswalk, while a police car would be sitting at a red light, at the front of the line, and nothing is done. Not an eye is blinked, and not a head is turned. If a motorcyclist is trapped behind a line of cars, it's common to see it driving down the white lines that divide the lane; between the lanes of traffic. I'll admit that I've even been guilty of this myself when the traffic is stopped at a light. It's also common to see motorbikes take to the opposing lane in order to get ahead of the traffic, or to make a left turn. They just assume that the opposing traffic will move. Indeed, the opposing traffic does move. Even the police will make way for the almighty 18-year old on the Domino's Pizza bike. If drivers acted like this in Canada, their license would be stripped away.

I used to think that drivers in Canada were terrible for not using blinkers when they turned, or when they changed a lane. Now I don't. Rarely will I see a Korean driver use turning signals. To check if a lane is clear, drivers here will often pull into their prospective lane a little bit and check it out. If nobody honks at them, then it's clear to change lanes. No signal or checking for traffic is required! Koreans seem to have the ability to make left turns while looking right. They don't even crash very often when they do that! It really is amazing. It's a wonder that road rage isn't a problem here.

Opps, I spoke too soon. It is a big problem here. One story that my friend Steve told to me a few days ago involves a pissed off driver who really doesn't appreciate the aggressiveness of busses. Steve was sitting on a bus. As his bus was coming up to a bus stop, the driver noticed some asshole parked on the bus lane. The horn was repeatedly honked, but the vehicle was not moved. As the bus parked beside it (in a traffic lane) to let passengers in and out, the driver of the vehicle got out of his truck and yelled something at the bus driver. He then got back into his truck and continued on his way, as did the bus. At the next stop, the same ass in the truck was parked in the bus lane. This time, the truck owner called the bus driver out. The fists started flying and the public on the bus started pleading for the fight to stop. It did, and both the truck and the bus were on their way. At the very next stop, it was the same thing. The truck was in the bus lane, and the two men got it on again. This time, according to Steve, it was a pretty good fight.

Where were the police in all of this?

I'll tell you were they were. They were in a police class, being taught how to let people get away with traffic violations of all sorts.

Did you know that if you go though a check stop and you blow over on the breathalyzer, you will get told to drive home safely? Why do I know this? Because it happened to me.

I was coming home from a friends house somewhere between 1 and 2 am one night and had a couple of drinks. In Ontario, the limit is 0.08 BAC. As I found out, it's 0.05 in Korea. I was screwed. I blew somewhere between 0.05 and 0.06. I had no license on me. Since I had a bike under 150cc, I was actually okay there (strange but true). They talked to me in Korean for a few minutes, then then told me to drive home. As I left, they told me to "drive careful". I was nearly shitting myself, because I thought that I was in trouble, and they told me to "drive careful". Now on one hand, that was pretty cool. On the other hand, that really says something about the police enforcement in this country. It really is lacking.

So are Koreans genetically stupid when it comes to motorized vehicles? Of course not, but they are severely uneducated. The police enforcement is serverely lacking. With these things combined, Koreans have become very dangerous on the road. Double lane changes, not using turning signals, aggressive driving and reckless driving are all commonplace.

Terrible driving in Korea is not something that just I, or my friend Steve, have witnessed. It is globally known that Korean drivers are absolutely horrible in general. People that I have met here confirm this, I was told this before I came here, and many newspapers and government agencies do as well. This short acticle from the Globe & Mail is a few years old, but it's very relevant:

If you're travelling to South Korea and are considering renting a car, you may want to keep in mind that the country has one of the highest rates of traffic death in the world. Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs also warns that car drivers are presumed to be at fault in accidents involving motorcycles or pedestrians. Criminal charges and heavy penalties are common when accidents result in injury, even if guilt is not proved.
- Laszlo Buhasz; The Globe and Mail; December 4, 2002


I dug up a couple of articles from the Korean times as well. They are interesting reads. Here's the links:

21 a Day Killed in Traffic Accidents
Driving in Korea? No Thanks


The author of Driving in Korea? No Thanks, comments "are you crazy?" when asked if he drives in Korea.

You could probably ask me that very same question when I tell you that I drive in Korea. My response is this:


Yes, I am crazy.