Transport issues and policies in Seoul: an exploration

Abstract

This paper presents an empirical overview of the traffic problems currently being experienced in the South Korean capital. These are largely the by‐product of rapid economic expansion in recent years and the development of a ‘car culture’ in the face of poor public transport provision. In the past, government policy was directed at overcoming infrastructural constraints through programmes of large‐scale investment. Whilst this policy has continued (with a significant programme of investment in Seoul's underground system), transport planners are now looking at ways of increasing road capacity by developing more sophisticated methods of traffic management. Although these seem to be proving successful on a trial basis, the paper argues that because of bureaucratic separatism, transport policy has been unable to keep pace with Seoul's rate of urban expansion. Policy relating to transport and urban development is often not sufficiently integrated and reactive traffic management may fail to divert future transport problems.