By Jake J. Nho
How would you like gasoline at 3,000 won per liter? To be honest, it suits me just fine. The only time that our family car is used is on occasional trips to the supermarket or to pick up the kids at learning institutes.
While my car is not small by any standard, I pump in 50,000 won worth of gasoline at a self-service filling station and forget about it for the next couple of weeks. Even at 3,000 won a liter, I have no problems.
Why I say this is, if it suits me fine, why doesn’t it sit well with other people? Unless you are a taxi driver or someone who works in marketing and needs to move around with loads of products, why should you have to have the privilege of jamming up roads which so many mass-transiters and I have the same right to use?
I gave up driving more than 10 years ago because it just did not make sense. The tedious driving, the parking, the cost and the fact that I cannot do anything while I am on the move. Isn’t that frustrating?
I usually leave home quite early, take a bus to the subway station ― always seated ― and spend about 35 minutes to get to the office. That is door-to-door. And you know what, it costs me 900 won. And I get to pay this at the end of the month on my credit card.
Would I give this up to waste all my time on the road, polluting the environment, looking at the clock to see if I am late every so often since there is always so much traffic? Not in a million years.
There is a reason why I use 3,000 won per liter for gasoline as an example. For one thing, it sounds kind of expensive. But then again, years ago, people used to say they will have to seriously reconsider driving to work if gasoline hits 2,000 won. We are here, more than 2,000 won actually. Are most of the people taking the 900-won subway? No. That’s why they deserve to pay at least 3,000 won for gasoline.
This is not to say I want refineries to pocket the profits. I am thinking more along the line of taxes, taxes which can be transparently earmarked for things like cheaper college tuition and stable vegetable prices, issues which are such burdens to ordinary folk.
Naturally, when gasoline goes up to 3,000 won, people are going to think twice but there are those stubborn souls who will insist that it is worthwhile to listen to blaring music on the radio while being stuck all over the place.
As we all know, Korea has virtually no natural resources, let alone crude. We have found some natural gas off the eastern coast but the commercial value, I have been told, is almost zero, that is to say it will cost more to explore.
Koreans have an interesting habit: We like to make comparisons with the United States. Let’s see, the U.S. is the largest economy in the world with a per capita gross domestic product of about $46,000 (2009). We are somewhere in 15th place with a per capita GDP of $20,000. What is there to compare?
But some people insist on saying that gasoline is so much more expensive here than in the United States. It is. But it is less expensive than in Japan, France, Germany and Great Britain on any given day.
For the sake of argument, let’s take the case of the United States. This is a vast country ― the state of California alone would be the world’s sixth largest economy by size ― and mass transit is often not a plausible solution. Many people there ``have” to drive. I know many of these people and they would not want to be doing this if they had a choice.
In Korea, especially in Seoul, we do have a choice. We have what many people, foreigners included, who say that our mass transit system is among the best anywhere. You ignore this, choose to drive to work in your air-conditioned car while your children and wife take the bus, or the subway, or walk. In cases like this, it is even a moral choice.
Traffic in Korea averaged about 21.5 kilometers an hour last year; I can almost cycle that fast. Parking in the garage in my office building is 200,000 won a month, every month.
So it is not just about the 3,000 won gasoline price. It is about getting a little healthier by walking a little more. It is about wasting less time and money on the road. It is about less pollution ― most buses in Seoul produce almost zero-carbon emissions and the subway runs on electricity.
I don’t suggest that people jog to the office or to school or to the supermarket. But this is a very conscious choice that we are entitled to make. You complain about the traffic congestion. Did you stop to ask who is causing it?
Jake J. Nho has worked as a journalist and a marketing executive in Seoul for over 20 years. He can be reached at jakenho@hotmail.com.