1. When I asked my friend, who was driving us back from the airport, why a police car was in the bushes with his lights on, he said, "that's not a police car, that's a fake set of lights on a stick to fake people out and make them think the cops are there." hmm. Interesting concept, but I don't see that one catching on in Detroit... well, maybe it would be a good idea to put them outside party stores.
2. [Note: I did not experience this next example, but nevertheless, the source is reliable]. So I was talking to one of my friend's who lives about 100 miles south of Songtan, and asked him how long it would take him to get to Songtan from his house. He said his "land speed record" was an hour and 36 minutes. I haven't mentioned the traffic yet, but there is no way he could have done that with out driving like a mad man in the bus only lane, so I asked him how he did it. Well, you guessed it, he drove 120km/hr in the bus lane. "How did you not get pulled over," I asked. He said, "The cops did try and pull me over, but I just kept going and they eventually gave up." Once again, try that one in Detroit.
3. The most interesting of all Korean driving habits involves the traffic light system. I had heard that if you are at a red light and nobody is coming, people just run the light and that's ok... which makes sense to me because stopping for "just because the light is red" always annoyed me. Note, I write "annoyed", as in past tense... which leads me to my first experience after I picked up my jeep from the port last Monday. So I make a right hand turn out of the port and come to a red light (mind you I am in downtown Seoul with not a clue where I am because we took a bus to the port and I slept the whole way). I am stopped at this red light in this glorious city of over 10 million people, trying to find a route home and this dude starts honking at me. I look at the light and note it is still red, so I figure he is just out to lunch... no, it's just me apparently. This guy drives around me nearly clipping off my window and speeds through the light... and then the next 3 cars follow him... and that was the last time I ever stopped at a red light. Ok, so that wasn't that bad, but check this out: the other day, I am going through an intersection (I had a green light) and this guy tries to run the red light and beat me through the intersection when he had a red light and HONKED AT ME.
4. If you finished reading #3, you know red means go and you probably think Koreans are very aggressive drivers because that's what I thought... until I was in the left hand turn lane with a green light waiting behind someone with no other traffic in sight. Apparently, turning left on a green light would be like walking into a Korean household with your shoes on (not good). While I am down with running red lights if no traffic is around, I DO NOT UNDERSTAND stopping at green lights. All I can surmise is that Koreans fear the left hand turn and really aren't in that big a hurry.
5. Need more proof that Koreans aren't in a hurry? Try and go somewhere on a Korean holiday. EVERY and I mean EVERY Korean gets in their car and goes somewhere (maybe). The traffic is so bad on the highway, people are stopped for over 8 hours. They don't move an inch. Ever bought dried squid or dog soup on a five lane highway? It happens. These traffic jams are so predictable that when they happen vendors jump out of the bushes and sell all kinds of stuff. People just get out of their car and hang out. Strange, but true. Not a bad business plan, I guess.
Whew, ok, I am glad I got that off my chest... now I can go back to riding my bike to work.
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