subscribe with RSS

Archives

  • 2012
  • 2011
  • 2010
  • 2009

Buttons

  • living in South Korea

Bad Korean Driving

One of the things I am not going to miss when I leave Korea is the driving. When I bought my HD camcorder last year I made a plan to make a video of the psycho nut cases behind the wheel here. However a little search on YouTube found several results including a series of seven videos by one guy that really showcase how bloody stupid drivers are in this country. Every single thing you see in these videos happens regularly. I swear that i cannot drive more than 5 minutes without seeing serious traffic violations of safety problems. For example when I drive my kids to school, a 5 minute drive, I can pretty much guarantee to see 2-3 people run a red light and 1-2 people driving in the oncoming lane so they get get around the line up at the red light and turn right.

I get so angry driving in this country and end up swearing too much when driving. My wife is always getting angry at me for swearing at drivers. I’ve now managed to keep the swearing to a minimum, but my 4 year old starts yelling out “Loser” whenever he hears a horn honking. He also makes an “L” with his thumb and index finger over his forehead (welcome to the 80s courtesy of Dad).

Enjoy.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7

Comments

Picture of Dan

Dan: Tuesday Aug 3, 2010  at  02:26 AM United States

Driving here is a bit of a challenge for the reasons you state; however, the things in this guy’s videos aren’t too uncommon elsewhere. I didn’t see much that I don’t regularly see in Chicago traffic.

With that said, driving here does drive me crazy. I’m always on the lookout for McNutty blowing the light or pedestrian running out from a row of illegally parked cars wink

Picture of Sean

Sean: Tuesday Aug 3, 2010  at  03:29 AM Korea (South)

Dan,
when I was in Ottawa I was driving all the time and didn’t see anything at all caused me to raise an eyebrow let alone fear for my life which happens every single time I drive here.

Picture of joe

joe: Wednesday Aug 4, 2010  at  09:25 PM Korea (South)

Here is one that should go with the videos above:
http://tvpot.daum.net/clip/ClipView.do?clipid=25707004

What the man did not count on is the fact that the guy in the car had a video camera rolling. I wonder how the talk with the police went.

Picture of XUP

XUP: Friday Aug 6, 2010  at  04:46 PM United States

I hope you weren’t driving while you took these videos?? Because that would be ironic.

Picture of joe

joe: Friday Aug 6, 2010  at  04:48 PM Korea (South)

XUP, I thought the same thing. One of the last ones, where he’s driving in the snow, you can actually see the camera in the mirror being held by the driver.

Picture of Sean

Sean: Friday Aug 6, 2010  at  04:52 PM Korea (South)

XUP, Joe,

these videos weren’t taken by me. I thought he had the camera strapped onto the seat with a tripod or something. Will have to go back and check out Joe’s find re: mirror.

Picture of joe

joe: Friday Aug 6, 2010  at  05:04 PM Korea (South)

Most of them are obviously not held by the driver, but there are a few places where I can’t really tell. In the last video, at 6:08, you can see that he is holding the camera as the mirror folds in.

I get frustrated with the driving as well, but it seems the driver is just angry. It got to where I couldn’t actually listen to him anymore and turned down the volume on his videos. That being said, I have also recorded my commutes with the idea of posting them. Then I watched them and thought who would really want to watch that? There are plenty of idiotic moves on every single commute. Though the greatest ones seem to happen when I don’t have a camera handy.

The videos of people driving in the snow are not that unusual. People all over the world (perhaps with the exception of Northern Europe and Canada) fail when driving in the snow and ice, especially when it happens only a few times a year.

Picture of Sean

Sean: Friday Aug 6, 2010  at  05:13 PM Korea (South)

Joe,
In Canada it’s a 50/50 crap shoot on who can drive in the snow. In Vancouver it’s more like 0% but even in Winnipeg there are people who drive like idiots in the snow. I’m going to chalk up bad winter driving to people in general are just stupid.

Commenting is not available in this weblog entry.

previous: Excellent Service Next: Andong Vacation Video