Lee Yeon-woo is a financial journalist at The Korea Times. Her wide range of reporting includes policies, macroeconomics, stock market, companies and even crypto. She is passionate about connecting the dots in Korean finance and making it easier for foreign nationals to understand. Based on her previous experience as a national reporter, she also has a keen interest in social issues within the sector, including gender equality and ESG. Your tips and insights are always appreciated. You can send them to yanu@koreatimes.co.kr.
Over 26 million Koreans take to roads for Lunar New Year
The southbound lanes on the Gyeongbu Expressway, which links Seoul and Busan, is clogged with vehicles on Friday morning. Newsis
By Lee Yeon-woo
By Lee Yeon-woo
Millions of Koreans began the annual journey back to their hometowns on Friday, one day ahead of the Lunar New Year long weekend, to gather with their families and pay tribute to their ancestors.
Lunar New Year's Day falls on Sunday this year, and Monday and Tuesday are public holidays, providing a four-day long weekend.
As this Lunar New Year marks the first national holiday without social distancing rules since early 2020, severe congestion is expected on roads leading out of cities across the country.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said, Friday, that it designated the five-day period, from Friday to next Tuesday, as requiring “special traffic countermeasures,” and will cooperate with relevant institutions to improve traffic conditions.
The ministry forecasted a total of 26.48 million people will hit the road during the holiday period, with 5.3 million moving each day during the five-day period. The ministry said it expects the traffic volume to be increased by 20 percent from last year.
The traffic congestion is likely to peak on Saturday morning, the day before families are to perform ancestral rites. According to the government's forecast, drivers that day will need five hours to reach Daejeon, eight hours and 40 minutes to go to Busan, seven hours and 40 minutes for Gwangju and five hours and 20 minutes for Gangneung.
The government will waive the highway tolls again, from Saturday to Tuesday, both for state-run highways run by Korea Expressway Corp., and 21 privately owned roads, including the Incheon International Airport Expressway.
As train stations, express bus terminals and domestic airports are expected to be flooded with people heading for their hometowns, the government decided to add extra trains, buses, flights and passenger ships in response.
Express buses across the country will run 612 times more during each day of the holiday period, and trains will run 130 times more. The total number of domestic flights will be increased from 2,610 to 2,711 during the long weekend.