Korean Driving Lesson

There are a few wee differences between driving in Korea and driving in Canada. Here are some examples:

In Canada everyone in the car must wear seatbelts.
In Korea, only those in front are required by law to wear seatbelts. It's not uncommon to see small children hanging out the back window, or people with babies on their laps in the back seat.

In Canada, red lights are short.
In Korea, you have time to make a few phone calls, do some sidewalk shopping, or read a Russian novel at a stoplight.

In Canada flashers are used in case of emergency and generally signify distress.
In Korea flashers are used to say, "Sorry," or "Thank you," when you cut someone off or cause other near-death experiences. Hazards are also used when you are about hold up traffic by parking legally, or to say, "I'll be back in a jiffy," when parking illegally and causing traffic jams. It is extremely common for the right lane of traffic to be out of commission due to double and triple-parked cars. Smaller streets are often reduced to one-way.

If you park illegally in Canada you get ticketed by a little ticket guy that walks around.
If you park illegally in Korea, a wee little Parking Ticket car comes along and blows a siren, giving you a chance to run out of the store and move your car, thus avoiding a ticket.

In Canada people use blinkers.
In Korea people do not.

In Canada truck deliveries are made in the rear of malls or stores.
In Korea delivery trucks stop in the right hand lane of traffic and put on their hazards while unloading goods.

In Canada restaurant delivery boys drive in cars or trucks.
In Korea delivery boys drive little scooters with boxes on the back (similar to milk crates), like so: Which leads me to more about those millions of Koreans zooming here and there that we call...

Scooter boys!

There are literally hundreds upon hundreds of scooter delivery boys in this country. They ignore all traffic "rules," concerned only with delivering their food on time. Flip flops are the shoe of choice, and hair is meant to be blowing in the wind! They weave in and out of traffic at breakneck speeds, run red lights within a millisecond of their lives, speed around pedestrians crossing the street, squeeze into lanes alongside cars already in the lane, and best of all, drive at speed down the sidewalk when forced to acknowledge a red light. Here is one weaving in and out of traffic, on the wrong side of the road! At least he's wearing a helmet. Sheesh. Incidentally, they do get hurt a lot.


In closing, here's a lovely little photo, a very common windshield view...subway construction. Always fun when 6 lanes of traffic are suddenly forced to merge into two!


Cheers everyone!