Driving me crazy!

Following my story on my almost maiden trip to Seoul (I passed through on my way in to Ulsan), the next few posts will probably be dedicated to some of the finer aspects of life in Korea as I see them.

First up - driving!

I believe that when you observe the behaviours of drivers in any country, you can almost distil the common underlying attitudes and behaviours of any culture and this is no different in Korea. In Australia, you have the laid back attitude, mixed with a little bit of unforgiving self righteous-ness (in the sense that cars belong on the road, pedestrians don't therefore they shouldn't be there and drivers act like that is always the case and no forgiveness if that assumption is violated at an inconvenient moment), some courtesy in patches and a sense that the rules of the road will always protect you. In India, the rules are that there are no rules. Anything goes, everyone owns the road, pedestrians, cars, taxis, auto rickshaws, cows, you name it. Somehow, you manage to get from point A to point B, but not without doubting at various points whether the trip was even worth it in the first place.... "Thanks bhaisab, I'll walk from here..."

As for Korea.... well, let me elaborate.

My first driving experience in Korea was actually long before I got my car - work provides a defensive driving for all staff, as safety is a huge focus here (in my company anyway) and it's especially useful for us expatriates that are not familiar with the Korean road rules and driving behaviours. As part of the course, we did a semi-driving test - where we took a car for a spin around the block and parked the car and such. It was no-where near as harrowing as my actual drivers test, but driving on the right hand side of the road for the first time was definitely freaking me out - you have no idea how much you rely on where you sit in the car to give you a point of reference when driving till when you change! I drove ok, cautiously, but I did drift towards the right side of my lane, subconsciously clinging to the Australian system.

This experience paled in comparison to when I first got my own car here... a bright red, brand spanking new Hyundai Tucson I might add - still had all the plastic on everything inside and had only done 50 km when I first got in it (refer to my previous post as to why it was a Hyundai! haha). I decided that my first drive in my new beast would be a simple trip down the road after work to Home Plus (Tesco's local presence) for some groceries... easy right? Wrong!

Now, to understand the lay of the land here, in regards to driving, let's analyse the average Korean - average to short in stature, mild mannered, fairly quiet, timid, friendly people who will always say hello to strangers, hard working, diligent and generally speaking, fairly peaceful. Take your average Korean and put them behind a wheel of a motor vehicle however.... and a monstrous transformation takes place! Well, it's not that it is completely unpredictable - it's just that Koreans seem to equate driving to work. Koreans are hard and diligent workers and therefore are aggressive by nature in their work life - get the job done quickly, no matter what it takes. They take on a similar attitude to driving. This presents several challenges in both the work world and on the road. 

What this means is that, unlike India, they generally stick to their lanes and obey the road rules most of the time - however this is only when the rules serve their objectives - they assume that if their objectives are compromised, they can bend or break the rules in order to meet their objective. It's the deadline that counts, not how you get there. What this ends up looking like is pure mayhem... Cars and bikes go every which way at times, drivers are impatient and aggressive and red lights will be run if they see no need to stop. To a fresh foreigner, it seems like madness...

So my first drive consisted of my first real drive on the "wrong" side of the road, in a new car I wasn't used to, at night, to a location I'd never been to (thank God for GPS!), and with an order of magnitude crazier traffic than I had ever driven in... needless to say I was a bit confused and anxious throughout the  entire trip and history will tell that I navigated it safely... even if it didn't feel that way!

Since then, I've become a lot more comfortable driving here, and driving on the other side of the road has become normal now, but I still get a bit bamboozled when drivers do things out of left field - like buses cruising around traffic waiting at a red light and ploughing through, being consistently overtaken by motorbikes on the inside (combined with motorcyclists and scooters being very unpredictable in general) and the odd use of the hazard lights as a universal pass to do whatever the hell you want on the road... "oh hey, I cut you off, turned left across four lanes and ran a red light and a pedestrian crossing but if I put on my hazard lights, its all ok, no worries". 

It can drive you nuts at times, but I am starting to see their method in the madness - not that I have any plans to adopt their methods, I will stick to my guns and drive defensively - i.e. I ain't running no red light just because you're honking your horn buddy! - but by at least understanding their driving philosophy can help predict their actions and avoid putting myself or others in danger. 

Definitely one of the keys to navigating this country safely, and I hope that none of it rubs off on me! Otherwise.... look out Australian road users upon my return!
Until next time - drive safely readers!
PS: Although I have become used to driving here now, India is one place I will NEVER drive - here is a video to illustrate why...