If you’ve been stuck in abnormally heavy traffic near the airport, you may not be surprised to hear this: traffic there moves at a slower pace than it does in downtown Seoul. For more, here’s Mike Laidman.
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[Slug] Heavy traffic between Shin Jeju, airport
The four lane road is clogged with traffic. Cars are stuck.
(도령로)Doryeong-ro is a 4-lane road that links Shin Jeju and the Jeju International Airport. It’s not uncommon for it to be busy, with cars backed up for hundreds of metres.
And during the tourism high season, the traffic only gets worse.
INTERVIEW Seo Man-bok / Taxi driver The road is crazy. Especially on days when the five-day market is on, it can take more than 30 minutes to drive the 3 kilometers from there to the airport. 서만복 / 택시기사 신광로터리에서 공항 구간이 제일 복잡하다고 봐야죠. 빠져나가는 시간이 오일장 겹쳤을 경우에는 30분 이상 걸려요.
According to the Jeju Traffic Information Center, the average speed along the road between 6am and 10pm is 19.3 kilometers per hour.
That's slower than the average speed in downtown Seoul, and doesn’t highlight the afternoon traffic, which is even slower.
It’s during these hours that traffic slows to a complete crawl: 13.6 kilometers per hour. That's 5 kilometers per hour slower than Seoul in the afternoon, at a sprightly 18.2 kilometer per hour average.
Analysts say that the continuous population growth and increased tourist numbers are responsible for the jump in cars on local roads.
In fact, the number of registered vehicles in Jeju increased from about 300,000 in 2012 to over 380,000 in 2014.
And then this year, the number hit 457,000.
This extreme traffic congestion is hindering local economic growth.
[SLUG] Costs of traffic congestion: ￦250b in 2011 → ￦430b in 2015
Slow traffic and frequent waits are causes for drops in tourist satisfaction and cost social expenses, too.
Specialists estimate that traffic congestion cost 250 billion won in losses in 2011, which rose to 430 billion won last year.
INTERVIEW Lee Jeong-gi / Representative, Bank of Korea Slow traffic could possibly damage the island's image of cleanliness and convenience, and it could badly affect growth in the tourism and IT sectors. < 이정기 / 한국은행 제주본부 경제조사팀 조사역 > 교통난 때문에 쾌적한 이미지가 손상될 가능성이 있기 때문에 향후 관광업이나 IT산업이 지속 가능한 성장을 하기가 어려울 것이라고 예측되고 있습니다.
[REPORTER] Mike Laidman [CAMERA] Hyeon Gwang-hoon
It's now time for the island to seriously consider coming up with new plans to improve average road speeds as traffic congestion continues to seriously and negatively affect Jeju Island.
