Since April 19 there are buses operating through the whole night on two routes in Seoul. The transport division of the city government published statistics about the usage of the night bus. This survey is very important because it helps the city to decide if operation should continue and expand or not.
During the first week of Seoul’s night bus service 11,709 people used the two night lines. N26 had 2,606 passengers and N37 transported 5,103 people. This means that there are around 2,000 people per night riding the bus. Citizens adapted very fast to the new lines: On the first day only 923 people used the service, whereas a week later already 1,955 people used it. The lowest number was 723 people on a Monday (that makes sense).
The purpose of the night lines isn’t to transport drunk people home from clubs like a lot of people interpreted it. According to a Korea.net article about the night lines, a city official said that the real purpose is to transport women, people who are disadvantaged and workers who do night shifts. Now the statistics show that 56.2 % passengers were “call-drivers” (대리운전기사, the guys you can call and they drive you in your own car home). Only 12.3 % of the passenger have been female.
What do the statistics tell us?
The low number of female passengers means that they have to improve the service further if they want to attract more female passengers. It has to be investigated why the number of women is so low. Could it be that it’s safer for a women to take a taxi? Another issue is the high share of call-drivers: Is it a good thing that other people can drink until late and get easier than before a call-driver? Of course, the call-drivers benefit from the service (lower expenses, can earn more money etc.) but I don’t think that this is the main purpose of the night buses. The survey will continue until July and then the night bus service may be expanded by six more lines.
Sources and Related Links: Yonhap News | Seoul Traffic | Korea.Net
Maybe there aren’t as many women out there late at night.
Thanks for your comment!
Of course, there aren’t as many woman at night as there might be per day. However, if the bus is designated to function as a safe transport method for women and others, there should be more of them than just 12 %.
It’s also possible to relate their underrepresentation to gender issues and social exclusion^^ With this exaggeration I just want to show that I don’t believe that the reason is so simple.
I don’t see why we should be judgemental and interfer with natural market mechanisms? It is absurd (and sexist) that you mention there are too few women using the bus, but declare the (probably mostly male) 대리운전기사 as unworthy of using this method public transport?!
> Is it a good thing that other people can drink until late and get easier than before a call-driver?
This is rubbish, considering the population density of Seoul and that those 대리운전기사 companies are still in business (they based their whole business model around drinking business men, so they sure know a lot more about this than we do! :D), I doubt that this new offer won’t impact the company bottomline in any way, it just impacts the take-home salary of those on-demand drivers!
I think this isn’t the place to discuss Korean drinking habits. I doubt they’ll change and public transport or not, people will always drink as much as they want, because if they really can’t get home cheaply, that’s what 찜질방, PC방 and 24h cafes are for. (Just visit Angel’n’Us or KONA Beans Gangnam or cafe bene in Hongdae. :D)
It should be obvious that those 대리운전기사 are out there working for a small salary, while the women that you expect to see in those buses would highly likely be spenders, i.e. party girls or women coming from a 회식 (and prostitutes usually have their own drivers or take a taxi LOL).
Obviously people that can afford to party probably don’t mind a few extra won for a taxi.
(Considering that most people won’t party in Gangnam when they live in Hongdae and vice-versa, i.e. a taxi ride to home might be rather affordable.)
Especially women are sensitive about public transport and general convenience, so why do you think it would be easy or morally justified to force women onto public transport, where there could be a dozen potential rapists vs. one cab-driving ajosshi?
Additionally, those busses will stop at a bus stop in the middle of the night, which might not be near to home (or even require another, shorter taxi-ride!), thus again increasing the any assault risks vs. taking a taxi, which you can ask / force to drive up to your doorstep.
Clearly both the 대리운전기사 and the women of Seoul made the most rational choice and your analysis is so far a bit short-sighted.
Hey Phil,
thanks for your comment.
I have to clarify some things: I never said that the call-drivers are unworthy of using the bus or something like that. I know that they don’t earn a lot of money and for a lot of them it’s their second job. It’s great that they adapted to the new bus lines and it may even lower their expenses.
You are mentioning that women, who are out at night, are party girls and prostitutes? Who is the sexist here?!? Don’t call me a sexist because I focus on women.
I said that there are too few women because the original purpose is transport women, late-night workers (this also includes call-drivers) and disadvantage. If you have been at night in Gangnam, then you know how hard it is to get a taxi. So this night buses are a great solution to this problem.
What I wanted to say with my interpretation: I don’t believe that every second person out there at night is a call-driver and that there are only 10 % women at night. It’s important to look why the user of the night buses differs so extremely from the reality (=the people moving from one place to another at night). I tried to deliver some arguments. Some of your arguments might be true, too. This imbalance shows that there’s more potential in the night buses if they adjust better to the needs of the citizens.
Drawing conclusions from surveys can be terribly ill-advised. How was this survey conducted? Was it a voluntary survey taken by riders? Could it be that there were far more women and non-대리운전기사 who rode the night buses than the survey reports, and that they were, for whatever reason, simply unwilling to complete the survey?
Assuming that the survey is accurate, it doesn’t seem all that surprising that women would be reluctant to ride the night bus. While the actual risk of assault or harassment must be quite low, the perceived risk might be significant enough to create discomfort. There might also be a feeling of stigmatization, should a woman find herself on a night bus full of men. The taxi – to all but hardcore penny-pinchers – might then seem to be the best option.
As for the large proportion of 대리운전기사… Regular night shift workers (convenience store workers, nurses, bar tenders, etc.) probably tend to go to work while the regular bus and train lines are still operating, and might get off of work only once the regular lines start operating again. At most, they’ll ride the night bus once a day. On the other hand, 대리운전기사 start their work (and start riding the bus) late at night, and make several one-way trips on the night bus every day – hence their over-representation (unless the survey counted each only once a day, which I doubt).
In a city as large as Seoul, with as many buses as Seoul, with as much of a demand for public transportation as Seoul, night buses should be considered essential. A city that truly never sleeps provides greater opportunity and freedom to its citizens and visitors.