Koreans and their cars

First some ground rules for Korean car travel, which is somewhat different to what I was used to in Australia. Wearing a seat belt is optional for passengers, and seemingly sparing enforced for drivers with very few taxi drivers opting to belt up. After being programmed to put on a seatbelt by the laws in Australia, this has taken some getting used to. I still automatically reach for the belt, every time I get in a car.

Red lights and indicating to change lanes, both seem to be regarded as optional. Lanes in general, seem to be more of an guide than an actual rule. Speed limits seem to be enforced fairly selectively.

Pedestrians give way to cars, rather than the other way around. At a cross walk without traffic lights, you can usually expect a car to stop for you, but I'm havn't been taking this one for granted. Korea has the highest number of road fatalities and injuries of any OECD nation. Most car travel in around the city in Korea seems to be of the low speed variety, because most streets are barely wide enough for 1 - 2 cars. In these circumstances, the optional seat belt rule seems to make a bit of sense.

But on the open road some Koreans really plant the right foot. We hopped into a cab the other night, within moments we were onto the freeway and hurtling at 140kph as we weaved around the traffic. It was a bit like waking up and finding yourself on a rollercoaster. I think next time I know we'll be travelling on the freeway I'm going to belt up anyways.

Taxi travel costs about half as much or less than in australia, so its a relatively cost effective way to get to ariound. There is a pretty effective bus and subway train network around Busan, but this country really seems to love their cars. Atleast 90% of the cars on the roads are of Korean make, Hyundai or Kia. Given the extreme population density, such a devotion to cars and all the space they take up, is astonishing. The area of the car park is greater than the building it supports in some cases. Petrol costs about ~AU$2 a litre, I think.

There is a pretty steep import tax on foreign cars, so i've barely seen any sports cars at all. Mercedes seems the be the biggest foreign car brand, but the Korean brand have borrowed the front styling of some of the more recent Mercs so its tough to estimate how many of them were the real thing. Other than Mercs my total count of foreign cars has been a few BMWs, Lexus' and Audis, a Corvette, a Mitsibushi Lancer Evo. So about 10 all up. (Sorry didn't get a chance to photo the Evo for you Jow)