Do you like to drive?

I have been living in Seoul more than 10 years but I did not spend my teenage in Seoul. I was born in a small city in southern part of South Korea and stayed with my family until I graduated from high school.

Since I got into a college in Seoul, I have been living here for a long time except for a few years in U.S.A. Basically, Seoul is the second hometown to me. Well I am actually more comfortable with living in Seoul rather than my real hometown. I don’t even remember public bus route and number in my hometown.

I am very satisfied with many respects in living here. Seoul is very safe and has the most efficient and clean public transportation system-I will not point out traffic jam and hustle-and-bustle thing on the subway during commuting time.

If you are planning on visiting Seoul for business trip or short casual trip, please avoid renting a car and getting around by yourself in Seoul. I would recommend taking taxi or public transportations, mitigating your stress.

First tip you should know: Taxi, Taxi, Taxi.

I don’t have particular antagonism to taxi drivers but taxies are just a lawbreaker on the street. They don’t follow rules and cut in the lane all of sudden without turing the signal and make a halt in the middle of line literally to pick up customers.

Some of you were maybe bothered with crazy taxies in big cities like Chicago. I tell you what. Seoul taxies are more bothersome and even threatening on the streets.

Bus too.

This big guy is not as nimble as taxies but this guy can cross over two or three lanes. Sometimes I was surprised with what I saw: that bus moves solely vertically versus other horizontally moving cars. Also, you will see nothing if you have bus drive ahead of you.

Second tip

Blinker.

We are supposed to turn blinker when to switch the lane to indicate you are going to jump to other lanes. By doing so, other drivers are aware of your car getting in the lane so that they slow down speed or control speed. What is going to happen when you do that here; So, you just turned the blinker.

You will see a car in next lane boosting up. So you let him pass by and wait but the car behind also speed up to maximum. Think about other case. You jump into other lane without blinking. Well, nothing is happening. I don’t know why people push accelerator when someone is turing blinker on. Not everybody does that, but some decent drivers let you in the line, definitely not working with rush-hour time. There’s no nice drivers here.

Big city drivers is okay to drive. They will get used to driving in Seoul but you have to leave when you handle yourself comfortable in the car. Not really good choice on cost-benefit perspective.

As an experienced driver in Seoul, I try to avoid letting taxi or bus cut in the line to be ahead of me as much as I could.

Third tip

Does waze work? Does google god guide me where to go?

I don’t think so. Local GPS and navigator serve to take me to destinations well. Once I tried waze, but it didn’t work. Maybe wake is based on crowd intelligence so more uses on waze give more precise direction and additional information but here no one uses waze. Google or apple map? I haven’t seen my people use those over local GPS.

T-map or Kakaotalk Navi, Atlantis map are top three amongst smartphone Korean GPS application. If you rent a car with built-in GPS, I am not sure if it provides english voice version. I was just fine with waze for my business trip in states but if I imagine myself driving here: illiterate to Korean and drive cars with local GPS. Well my friend. I don’t know I wish I could do that unless I am a very adventurous person.

Last tip

So, take taxi if you are on business trip in Seoul. I assume your counterpart could introduce hotels nearing the meeting place. It might be under $20 unless you head from the west end to east end, which will cost you $35~40 for commuting time.

If you are on short trip, please use subway or bus. Subway comes on time and runs until 11:30 PM during weekdays and to 12:AM for weekend. Wherever you will go for sightseeing in Seoul, you will find it difficult to park.

I was listing three reason to stay away driving in Seoul. I have to confess this: I do not like to drive in Seoul and feel stressed when I see taxi not keep the line and the rules.

I was so okay to drive in twin cities in MN state. After I came back, it took me while, no years to get used to driving and accepting many drivers not following the rules, which was taken for granted by so many.

I think Seoul has enough fun stuff to blow away your worries with driving. Just saying that think once again if you plan on renting a car to drive by yourself.