Average Koreans spend around 35 minutes on each commuting trip

One thing that works very well in South Korea, especially if you live in Seoul, is public transportation. Everything is new and efficient, at least if compared with other countries. Also, as a foreigner living in Korea, one thing that I value a lot is the high reliability of the service. Strikes aside, in my experience, it is very rare that Subway or any other kind of public transportation fails or gets delayed. I come from Spain, and even though the public transportation system in my natal city (Barcelona) is not that bad if you compare it with other countries, it cannot even get close to the Korean standards.

Anyway, a recent study about the time that Koreans spend commuting has been released, and according to this, the average Korean spends around 35 minutes commuting on every trip in the morning rush hour. For me, this is not a very long time considering how big and rushed a megacity like Seoul is. However, there is a huge proportion, about 1 in 7, that spend 2 hours commuting. This disparity is mostly caused by the people who can live close to their jobs/schools and the people who can not afford the rent there.

For me, rent increase is a huge problem that the government should take care of. I know that not everybody can live close to the centre of the city, but having to do a 2-hour commute is really hard and tiring. Therefore, improving the connection and making new and faster lines should be a goal to improve the quality of life of Koreans. Also, if you live in Seoul, you should avoid using your car because, aside from pollution and health diseases, there are a lot of traffic jams in rush hours, and it is not the fastest route. For me, using the car in Korea would be only if you don’t have good public transportation or for going outside of the city.

Source. The Korea Herald