I feel like too many of my posts might be perceived as negative, even though they are intended to be just observations of differences in culture, so I want to talk about some of the good sides of living in Korea. After all, I do
choose to live in Korea so there must be some admirable qualities to life here and I want to show case one of those in this post: public transportation.
I must say not owning a car and not being able to go where you want when you want was definitely an adjustment when moving overseas. Not only is it more challenging to get places, as you have to walk to a bus or subway station, wait, often make some transfers to other buses or subway lines, but also you are limited by time. Public transit usually ends around midnight, which means you have to either go home before then, or pay a taxi to take you home, which luckily is not too expensive here in Korea.
However the benefits to not owning a car in a big city far outweigh the inconveniences. Not having to pay or worry about parking, which is extremely hard to find and is expensive in Korea, is one example. Another is never having to be stuck in miserable rush hour traffic. If the bus I am on is stuck in traffic I can get off at almost any stop and still be walking distance to a subway station. Lastly, I don't have to worry about the extra costs and maintenance of owning a car.
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| Arrows pointing where to transfer |
Aside from the minor challenges mentioned in the second paragraph, South Korea has made living without a car even more convenient with its ultra efficient public transit system. With almost 300 subway stations (291 to be exact), you are never far away from a subway station. Once inside a station, it is very easy to find out where to go as each line is number and color coded, there are subway maps as well as that line's map in each station, and signs telling you which way to go depending on which station you are going to. To transfer at a station is also extremely easy as the screen inside the subway car tells you which stations to transfer at depending on which line you are connecting to, and once off the train you can easily follow arrows and colored path (coordinated to the color of that line) to the next train. Also the trains run on a consistent schedule everyday, so you can always know exactly when a train will come by learning the schedule and it is always punctual.
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Screens tell you the station name, which side to exit, which
lines you can transfer to and even the next few stops |
If by chance you are not near a subway, or the place you want to go is not near a subway, then there are always buses. In many cases a bus can be even more convenient than the subway, even when both choices are available. For example, I have the option every morning to take a bus or the subway to work, and, unless I am running late, I always choose the bus. Why? Well I can always get a seat first of all, where on the subway that is rare, and on a bus you can zone out and play on your phone, stare out the window, or do something productive like study Korean without having to miss your stop since you can see where you are. On the subway you cannot see anything, so you constantly have to keep track of which station you are at in order to not miss your stop, which happens to me way too frequently. Also, like the subway, they come quite regularly.
One last thing that makes public transit so convenient is technology, specifically in mobile apps. For the subway there is an app that allows you to search how to go from one station to another. It will tell you how long the journey will take, when the next trains are coming, the fastest route or the route with fewest stops, how many transfers are made and even which train car to get in to make the fastest transfer at the next station! They really have it all covered. Then for the buses there is an app that can tell you which bus to take to go where you want and where that bus is exactly at that moment so that you know when it will arrive.
There are times I still wish I had a car, mostly to travel to other cities, but thanks to Korea's efficient public transit, I am satisfied without one.
