| Motorized traffic has grown explosively in South Korea in the last decades. The number of registered cars was 14 million in 2005. This is about 4 times the number in 1992, and a hundred and fifty times the number of cars (100,000) in 1969. Now, some roads in urban areas are congested throughout the day. Even in some rural areas, cars constantly cram the roads. Rapid construction of new roads cannot cope with the demand. The big economic recession of '97 / '98 would have given some relieve in this sufficating development, but the quick recovery of economy in 2000 made this dream not come true.
Korea抯 car-dominated society offers little room for bicyclists and their bicycles. The few bicycle tracks that exist are snatched by drivers for parking lanes or used as sneak-through alleys to avoid traffic jams. Despite all these obstacles, cycling is not bad in a Korean traffic jam. The wide roads allow cyclists to pass idling cars. Traffic jams also pose less danger: no speeding cars! In most cities, bicycling is the fastest way of travel. Yet the few cyclists seen are poor people who can't afford a car. This creates a car-versus-bike mentality, as well as car-versus-pedestrian. As long as cycling (as a means of transport) is seen as a behavior of people in the lower social-economic class, it will remain trivial to most Koreans. In the late 90's the government, however, has announced an ambitious plan to promote bicycling in the country. A budget of US$ 2.6 billion has been reserved until 2010 for 21,000 kms for bicycle roads and parking facilities. Indeed nowadays you see many steel frames coming in the streets for parking your bike. Also in many streets in the cities the sidewalk for pedestrians has a red-painted lane meant for use by cyclists. See the pictures in the interesting account of David Mozer about the results of these bicycle promotion plans. In several occasions, the situation in Japan has been taken as an example. While in Japan the people are used to cyclists among pedestrians, the Koreans are not. I think many projects are a bad investment in bicycle promotion. In the meantime, take my advice: Cycle the country lanes in the rural areas, far away from the cities. For more information of bicycle facilities and personal suggestions for improvement, see About the Infrastructure for Bicycle Travel
Lots a Bikes for Rent Seoul
If you're in Yeouido Park or Olympic Park and want to ride a bike you're in luck. The picutre to the left is just half of the stock of one of the five bike rental places in Yeouido Park (and more in Olympic and other ones, too). Rates are reasonable (same as the rollerblades, actually) at 3,000 won (USD 2.50) an hour...6,000 won an hour for tandem bikes (those ones are popular too). Just give them a piece of ID and pay for the first hour, if you go longer just make up the 'overtime', as they call it, when you return (there is no extra charge for being late, you still pay the base rate only). You can even go as far as you like...perhaps the 22 km from Yeouido Park to Olympic Bridge...just as long as you're back by about 8-9pm when they want to close up.
Contact: not available
- Biking
- Rental places are close to the gates of the parks. They call a bike a "ja-jeon-geo" here.
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