By Kim Rahn
Staff Reporter

``People keep to the left, and cars keep to the right.'' So goes the song Koreans learn about traffic rules in kindergarten.

The childhood lesson means Koreans recognize they should walk on the left side of roads, sidewalks and public facilities. In reality, many people find the rule uncomfortable.

Now the traffic authorities are moving to change people's decades-old walking custom to bring it in line with international practices.

The National Police Agency said it will seek to revise related traffic law to switch the walkers' direction to the right side. The current law stipulates that people should walk on the left side of a road without sidewalks.

The plan came after experts have pointed out that keeping to the left goes against natural instinct. The authorities launched a study on walking culture in 2007. They found that 73 percent of people preferred keeping to the right, as 88 percent of Koreans are right-handed. They felt uncomfortable by being guided to keep to the left against their natural preference.

``Many public facilities, including turnstiles and museums, are also built in favor of people walking on the right side, making people often bump into each other,'' a ministry official said.

In light of this, the government will seek campaigns so that people will keep to the right.

A related experiment showed that people had 15 percent less eye movement and an 18 percent slower heartbeat when on the right side ― indicating they feel more comfortable when walking on the right.

The switch is expected to increase walking speed 1.2 to 1.7-fold and decrease the number of clashes among pedestrians by 7 to 24 percent.

``How to walk is self-regulating. So, instead of forcing people by the law, we'll encourage them to change the walking direction through campaigns and education in order to increase efficiency,'' the official added.

The new guideline will also encourage pedestrians on the sidewalk to keep to the right so that they can face oncoming cars. ``We expect to reduce traffic accidents by 20 percent with the new plan, reducing the number of deaths from accidents by 70 per year and injuries by 1,700,'' the official said.

During the Joseon Kingdom (1392-1910) era, regulations stated that people and carriages keep to the right, but it was changed in 1921 to put Korea in line with Japan where cars keep to the left.

After Korea was liberated from Japanese colonial rule, the U.S. authorities changed the regulation again by putting cars to the right, while maintaining that pedestrians keep to the left. The Korean government followed suit when establishing the law on road traffic in 1961. It was applied only to roads without sidewalks so that pedestrians could face oncoming cars, but the rule has been adopted as a custom in other public facilities such as the subway system.

rahnita@koreatimes.co.kr