Korean Drivers

Korean Drivers…

Are terrifying. I would say they probably number among the worst drivers in the world. They don’t appear to have any rules that they have to follow on the road, only some “suggestions,” that they don’t really follow. You know, like red lights, and SIDEWALKS. Let me explain. Picture, if you will a “normal” crosswalk. There’s a stoplight above it, for the cars, and a walk/don’t walk across from it, for the pedestrians. There’s the crosswalk itself painted on the road, and the cars stop just behind it. But not here, oh no. Here the crosswalk isn’t at the corner, or at the edge of a particular intersection. There’s the stoplight, then an area for cars, then the crosswalk, then the rest of the road. So, even if the cars have a red light, and the pedestrians have walk, cars still want to get as close to the intersection as possible, so they go through the crosswalk to this extra bit of road. They don’t really care so much about not hitting pedestrians, either. Also, there’s no buffer between the walk for pedestrians, and the go for cars. In North America, it would change to don’t walk for a few seconds, to make sure everyone gets across the street, and then the cars change to go, when there are no people left to run over. Here, however, it changes directly from WALK to go. So if you started crossing the street, and the cars change to green, there are already cars coming at you. They won’t wait.

There’s more to say about the red light, too. It doesn’t mean stop, the way it does everywhere else. It means something along the lines of “stop if you want to. Or not.” They mostly go for the or not side of it. Scooters and motorcycles don’t bother to stop at all, they just plow right through. Everything bigger than a motorcycle will (usually) at least make a rolling stop – and then just keep right on going through. It’s not even like the roads are empty, and there’s no one else on the road, so an occasional car bends the rules. No, they just plow right out into the intersection to find the tiniest break in the traffic. Taxis do it A LOT. I’ve seen BUSES go through red lights. I’m sorry, but in my opinion, when you’re holding 100 people’s lives in your hand (bus), you don’t break rules that can KILL THEM.

Scooters and motorcycles, since the red light doesn’t apply to them, other rules apparently don’t either. Oh, also, Koreans will put three or more people on a scooter. Sometimes some of them are babies, squished between two parents. Like actual babies, not just kids. And they drive them in flipflops, with headphones on. And all the delivery drivers drive scooters, and they hold what they’re delivering in one hand, and steer with the other, so their aim isn’t always the best. If they think that it’s shorter or faster to drive on the sidewalk, instead of the road, THEY’LL DO IT. They don’t particularly care who else is on the sidewalk, they’ll drive right down the middle – and you better watch out for whatever they’re carrying in their big, metal delivery boxes. Scooters pretty much drive on the sidewalk more than they do the road, but quite often cars drive on the road too. Motel parking lots are inside the motels, so for cars to get to them, they have to go across the sidewalk. Sometimes, though, there are gates along the sidewalk (if it’s to keep traffic off the sidewalk, it’s not working). In these cases, the cars would have to go to the corner, and get on the sidewalk from there, and drive along until they get to wherever they’re going. Similarly, the parking lot at the grocery store IS the sidewalk. Cars just swerve off the road onto the sidewalk, and park wherever they happen to be.

I’m angry about about, because I think I saw a lady die on the road ---. I was walking home a few days ago, and I saw a woman lying on the road, and an ambulance beside her. She really wasn’t moving at all. There was a taxi stopped on the road, so I think she got hit (other than scooters, taxis seem to make the most risks). The ambulance people put her on a stretcher and lifted her up, and she still didn’t move. While they were putting her in the ambulance, PEOPLE WERE HONKING, because the ambulance was taking up one lane. It’s not like the whole road was closed, there were still two lanes open, and people were moving through just fine, only they were mad that they were going to get somewhere SLIGHTLY SLOWER than they might have if someone hadn’t died.

The Lost Boy

June 28th

Here's an email I wrote to BBro about the experience I had coming back from her house:

Sooooo....

You know how I left your place at like 8:30 the other day... Guess what time I got home? 2:00.

I hate Korea.

I took the Subway first, and I thought everything was fine. Then I got off at the stop I was supposed to transfer at. And for some reason their colors are different. So I was following the blue signs, because I wanted the blue line. So naturally that was the purple line. So I went back the other wayand got on the green line... Which is the blue line. Then I got off at Cheyongyangni (whatever), which for some reason is on the map twice.

So I get on the 420 which supposedly stops at my school. Of course it doesn't. Maybe it takes a different route in the opposite direction? I just assumed I missed it, so I stay on, because I also assume the bus does a circle. It doesn't. So I'm at the other end of the city and the bus comes to
the end of its route. I'm the ONLY person on it. The driver tells me to get off, and points to another bus.

So, back the other way. I'm clearly not on a bus that goes to Dongdaemun, just back across the river. So the guy tries to tell me how to get to Dongdaemun? I think? Eventually a kid who speaks English gets on and we have this exchange:

KID: Get off at (whatever) stop, ok?
ME: ...ok
KID: Do you know where (blah) is?
ME: no
KID: then how were you going to get off there
ME: ...
KID: do you have any Korean friends?
ME: Not yet, I just got here
KID: You're going to have a lot of problems.

Jerk.

So then we get to (so and so) stop and the bus driver gets out of his bus and CHASES DOWN ANOTHER BUS. As if they don't come every 30 seconds! So I get on THAT bus... Finally this guy goes Dongdaemun, Dongdaemun, and like pushes me toward the door. So I start walking.

Half an hour later, guess where I am. Same place I started! Somehow. So I walk some more. And then I'm in like whatever-dong or -gu, or whatever.

Eventually I try to get a cab. I was reluctant because of our horror last time. Plus I was pretty sure I knew where I was going. Samsung. Turn. etc. So, I stick my arm out, and a cab that was already passed me, and going like 100 m/h, SLAMS on his brakes. I say Tapshimni Sagury... He deliberates for literally minutes. With the counter thing going. Then drives. Then stops and
deliberates some more. Then yells at the police (!!!) then drives. Clearly doesn't know where he's going. Eventually he drives past my motel. Finally.
Thank God.

Worst day ever.
Good chicken though.