Traffic Jams and Folly

So, driving in Seoul is crazy. Anyone who has been to Asia (or driven in Philadelphia) will understand what I mean by crazy. For everyone else, here's the description: cars parked everywhere, seven lanes of traffic when there are only four or five lanes designated by the painted lines, blind corners, no sidewalks, narrow roads that are incidentally also major thoroughfares, pedestrians all over, motorcycles that go everywhere (in between cars whether they are moving or stopped, along sidewalks (when the roads have sidewalks), through red lights (they are not required to stop); they pretty much get the best of both pedestrian and motor vehicle worlds without the responsibility of either), three wheeled trucks, people cutting each other off, merging lanes with no warnings, and steep hills. Nicks and scratches are the least of your worries here. They happen all the time, but everyone accepts them as part of driving. In fact, many of the cars here have bumpers to go over their bumpers. Go figure that one. I could go on, but I'll spare you.

I have not yet driven myself (our car comes tomorrow, yay!), however I have experienced traffic in a bus, a taxi, and a friend's car (the subway does not count, which I have most often used, but it does have its own unique sort of traffic). It seems to me that buses are the most aggressive and try to kill everybody else, followed closely by the taxis. Some ladies in the ward refuse to drive in the city at all. Although I will not follow their lead, I really don't blame them for their decision, especially since taking the bus (or subway) is so easy, convenient, and puts you on top of the "trafficial food chain."

Because we shipped our car, we are required to take the Korean Driver License Test for Foreigners, as it is illegal to drive in Korea without a Korean drivers license (they don't accept the International Drivers License). There is a packet of study materials that can be acquired somewhere. Matt was going to get them some time and bring them home to me so I could study them. In the mean time, I tried observing the traffic, figuring it would help me to learn the rules that may be different than in the US. Well, I couldn't really devise a set of rules based on watching the traffic. If there are rules (I assume there are, though there is evidence to the contrary), they are not followed to the extent that they are obvious. According to my observation, even driving on the right side of the road is not concrete, and I had witnessed too many face-offs between cars going opposite directions yet needing the same space on the narrow road. Because of this, I was rather interested to get my hands on that packet just to see what the rules that weren't being followed were. At least then I would know what people were supposed to be doing. When our car came I could then learn what people actually do just from driving around myself.

A couple of weeks ago (we were still at the hotel at the time) Matt came home from work one evening with the packet in hand and informed me we were going to go take the driving test the next morning. I was a little bit annoyed that Matt hadn't given me more time to study the information, but I got over it quickly because I figured I probably wouldn't have studied very much anyway. Studying is not really my style. Cramming, on the other hand... Anyway, I finally got to check out this packet, and let me tell you, I don't know how more people don't get in accidents than they already do.

Most of the rules are basically the same as in the US. Stop at the red light. Go during the green light. If you reach a stop sign at the same time as somebody else the person on the right goes first, etc. etc. One major difference is that you can't turn left on a green signal; you must wait for the protected left turn arrow. However, sometimes you can (I'm using a lot of italics today) turn left during a red light. Hmmmm. That is interesting. And counter-intuitive. My favourite rule (and the most ignored) is the one that states "no squeeze play." Squeeze play, eh? I don't think I've ever seen anybody excercise caution regarding "squeeze play." I've seen people nearly run off the road because it's so rampant. Another gem of a rule is when you approach an intersection the person going the fastest has the right of way. That was something I observed but I didn't think that a relative speed would determine a right-of-way as an official rule. Too bad you can't use that rule in the United States. Can you imagine telling a police man "well, I was going faster than that other guy..."? He'd write you a speeding ticket in addition to whatever else you did. Another rule (also often ignored) is "when on an incline, the descending car as the right of way." I guess that's one way to distinguish it. On a hill there is always either someone going up or someone going down. If this rule reflected reality, however, I think they would have to reword it to say "when on an incline, the biggest car has the right of way." However, they couldn't say that because it directly conflicts with another rule, which is "just because you have a bigger car doesn't mean you have the right of way." I think they added that rule just for Americans because most of our cars are typically bigger than the Korean ones (excluding buses, nothing is bigger than a Korean bus).

Well, I took the test and passed (100% woo!), and I now I have my Korean license. This is going to be interesting.