Don't Make Me Pull This Car Over!

That's a typical American saying, right? I'm pretty sure the Korean version would be something like:

Don't make me stop this car at any given moment no matter where we might be in traffic. I will make you get out and other traffic will probably stop for you (or at least avoid you) because they expect pedestrians to be anywhere and everywhere. 

Driving (technically, riding as we haven't actually driven yet), has been one of the biggest culture shocks so far. The main points are:

• Red lights are optional
• Speed limits aren't usually enforced
• You can drive wherever necessary to maintain forward progress
• Multiple people can make U-turns in the same direction--at the same time
• Also, U-turns can be made pretty much anywhere
• Parking is pretty much wherever you stop your vehicle

Funny enough what will get you pulled over is turning left without a green arrow.

Typical 2-way street by our hotel

A lot of cars have these bumpers on the doors. Parking is tight!

There are four main brands of cars here. I'd say the top two are Kia and Hyundai. They are everywhere. There is a mixture of sizes and brands but it's smartest to get a compact car here. The roads are so narrow and parking is tight-it's best to be able to zip around and accommodate the craziness. Samsung & LG are everywhere around here, so it's not too surprising Samsung wanted in on car sales.

Samsung

Daewoo

There aren't too many semi-trucks here (which is probably for the best) but there are a ton of these cargo trucks:

On our initial ride from the airport to the hotel we saw a few ambulances with lights going that no one pulled over for. Hopefully I will never end up in an ambulance with a time-sensitive health matter! 

Typical parking. And yes, the 4-wheeler across the street can drive on the road.

There are big yellow and white speed humps everywhere. And not just on city streets around schools or special neighborhoods. They are common on city roads and highways, too. Here's a video of a cab ride we took. I actually started filming because I was so surprised to see a TV in the front of cab but you'll get to experience going over a speed hump, Korean style. The quality isn't great but I recommend watching it full-screen to get the full experience.

Did you notice we didn't slow down even a little? Yeah, that's pretty normal. I will say for how terrifying it's been watching everyone drive I've seen surprisingly few accidents. It sounds like they are a mess to sort out so hopefully we won't experience that while we're here. 

See the guy wearing a green coat in the middle of the intersection? Evidently he is directing traffic. He does have the orange stick...please keep in mind all these roads are two-way. It just boggles my mind! It sounds like there was a big driving boom in Korea within the past couple of decades which explains a few things. There weren't nearly as many cars on the roads in the past which is why it wasn't much of an issue having such narrow roads. Also, because of the sudden transportation growth there weren't rules in place which has let driving grow into the free-for-all that's going on today. Hopefully someday there will be more structured and enforced safe driving habits here.

In the mean time, neither Mike nor I are looking forward to trying it out! We plan on living pretty close to his work so daily driving should be manageable (one would think...). There are a lot of public transportation options, so we have that in our favor. We did successfully navigate around on our own yesterday via taxi and train. We shared a good chuckle at the fact that the service desk that had translators available to help us barley knew the words 'train station'. When all else fails we can resort to playing Guesstures, right?