Korea is safe country but its roads are not

 

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By Scott Shepherd

2021-07-24(코리아타임스)

The big bosses of the bus Kèo nhà cái never actually ride the bus in Korea, not for their daily commute or for running errands or shopping. I have no evidence for this claim, but it has to be true, and therefore I repeat it boldly: they don't ride the bus. If they did, things would be very different.

A bus journey in Korea is rarely a pleasant one. Those passengers unfortunate enough to not have a seat desperately cling on to each other or to the assortment of poles and handles as the bus bounces along the road and skids around corners, accelerating and decelerating at a rate that makes the eyes water and the cheeks flap. Of course, the driver rarely bothers to pull his vehicle over to the side to let people on or off: any would-be passengers must anxiously clutch their cards and rush forward the moment the bus arrives in the hope that the bus will slow down long enough for them to somehow board.

Before the bus has screeched to a halt, the doors have sprung open. There is a surge; the quick ones from outside jump in and rush for a good spot; the lucky ones from inside leap off before the doors snap shut on them; the bus takes off again. Woe betide the new arrival who, limbs akimbo, has yet to find something to hold onto for support. Queasy faces peer out the windows. The bus roars towards its next stop.

All these tech billionaires preparing to blast to space would do well to catch a red bus on the outskirts of Seoul. After that, riding a rocket to the stratosphere wouldn't feel too bumpy.

It's not just the buses. Much as I love this country, the roads are a mess; to be honest, they're the worst and most chaotic roads in a developed country that I've ever seen. Motorbikes whiz all over the place, switching between the road and pavement at will and running red lights with impunity. Car drivers weave between lanes, cut each other off with no warning, swerve suddenly, park anywhere.

And while some areas do indeed have well-designed and modern roads, plenty of streets are neglected and pot-holed. Many have no pavements, even in central parts of Seoul ― one of the biggest cities on the planet. In a country where jaywalking is prohibited, pedestrians often simply have to walk along the edge of the road, keep a wary eye out and hope they don't get hit.

And when was the last time anyone saw a traffic warden? I know it's trendy to scorn them, I know they're always the butt of cliched jokes, but the roads are more dangerous in a society where traffic laws are rarely enforced.

In fact, it was only in 2018 that the government finally passed a law requiring all car passengers, front seat or back, to wear seatbelts on all roads, not just on motorways. 2018! Even with the law in place, the punishment for offenders is only 30,000 won, going up to 60,000 won for an adult driving with an unsecured child. This is at most a slap on the wrist. Culturally many here still see it as a bit of a weird choice ― almost a strange quirk or habit ― to wear a seatbelt in the back seats, rather than an easy step that could save your life of the life of those you love.

Inevitably, tragically, obviously, all this translates to a high fatality rate on the roads.

A comparison of Korea's road safety record to that of other OECD countries reveals the extent of the problem. While data from 2020 or 2021 is skewed by the disparity between lockdown measures taken in each country, pre-pandemic figures show that Korea's rate of road deaths per million people in 2019 was 64.8, compared to Sweden's 21.5, Norway's 20.2 and Iceland's 16.6. Korea was ranked 31st out of the 38 OECD countries.

It's a difficult problem: how can you change a whole nation's driving habits? What changes will save lives on the road?

A 2016 report entitled "Halving the Number of Road Deaths in Korea" addresses the question. It lays out a number of specific and detailed recommendations for improving road safety. Some, such as the requirement for all passengers to wear seatbelts on all roads, have been implemented. Others, such as better enforcement and advertising, clearly have not.

But let's give Korea it's fair due.

The government's statistics show that in 2002 there were 13,949,440 vehicles on the roads compared to 23,202,555 in 2018. During the same period, the number of people dying on the roads dropped from 7,224 to 3,781. So while the number of vehicles wasn't too far from doubling, the number of deaths was nearly halved. In fact, the country has been steadily improving its road safety for decades. Back 1996 when Korea first joined the OECD, it had by far the most car deaths per capita, a shocking 278 per 1,000,000. Deaths per million vehicles on the road were over a thousand. How far this nation has come in a single generation!

True, the improvements are still too slow; certainly, there are still far too many people pointlessly dying on the roads and pavements of Korea. But this is real progress, and it's something of which the country should be proud.

There is still much to be done. The government needs to take road deaths seriously and put more money and effort into tackling the problem. It's impossible to completely eliminate road deaths, but there are obvious and easy solutions available now. To start with, the government should implement the detailed and specific recommendations of the 2016 review and then continue to study best practice, adopting and adapting the best ideas from other countries to make them work here.

Bus companies, by the way, could implement change so easily in the way their drivers behave. They should create a more rigid timetable, require buses to go slower, not faster. The fact that they don't, gives rise to serious questions about where their priorities lie.

Many of the changes will cost more money, but road safety merits real investment: life is more important than money.


Dr. Scott Shepherd is a British-American academic. He has taught in universities in the U.K. and Korea, and is currently assistant professor of English at Chongshin University in Seoul. The views expressed in the article are the author's own and do not reflect the editorial direction of The Korea Times.