Uploaded on 2017-02-15 by Jay Hong

Seoul and its suburban areas take nearly a half of the whole population of South Korea, the estimate is over a 25 million out of 50 million. The demand of highest level of traffic control and public transportations are undoubted. Buses and travellers are both in queues which seems never ceased regardless of time or weather, leaving aside the cars that battle to get out of the stagnancy. However, when compared to the time over the past few years, the travellers’ loadings and the trip itself are quite a change. The picture is of a normal weekday bus stop close by Gangnam Station, probably the most crowded place in South Korea. Travellers are checking the due, a queue is not there at that moment, but comes soon. Real-time arrival reporting system at a bus stop and train station is taken for granted. Buses (and also trains) are coloured to show where they are going. There are more to see in the picture, however, to understand how people use the public service, and how eagerly they take a control to organise their own travel in the urban area. If you are a regular customer of Korean public transportation, or you look carefully into the screen of due reporting service and look at the passengers who gets on their bus, then you may guess some different electronic apps on the passenger’s phone and a free transfer card in their wallet or pocket. Some may have neither of them but i-pad. One surprising thing is, when the bus is nearly on its due, then people turn up. To travel easily and efficiently, many Koreans are keen to use real-time traffic information and more than one type of payment method. In most urban area in South Korea, public transportation services are provided in a gratifying level, not only aims to reduce the travel time but also provides traffic information in detail, and challenges new technology. Most of the bus stops and train stations are able to report when your bus or train is due and where it is going past now. Many people are using an electronic app on their phone to check the timetable of their bus or train, and mostly the vehicles are on time. Many of the people are using a magnet card which are varied from a credit card to a free transfer card, others use electronic apps again to pay the transportation, and any form of the payment can save money when a transfer benefits your travel. The level of exposure to the information and the varied types of payment methods encourage people to plan their travel on their own. In statistic researches, if it has been done or will be done to describe in what information Koreans are interested and what is the level of efficiency, shorter travel time and organised travel route in Korean urban area may be presumable, comparing to the other urban areas.