In the last days I’ve read some very interesting numbers about speeding and cycle deaths in Korean news. I summarized two articles: The first news article is about traffic speed control and the second article shows the issue of cyclist deaths. I translated the most important information and I hope that others find these numbers interesting, too.
Speeding in Seoul
The allowed driving speed in Korean cities is 60 km/h. Even though this is already a very high speed (too high in my opinion), a lot of drivers seem to be speeding. Many streets have speed control sensors and cameras. In 2011 they have caught 416,397 cases, 2012 it grew to 422,245 cases and 2013 recorded a new record: 508,837 cases of speeding. You may think that they increased the number of controls but actually 2013 there were 413 active speed control cameras, while there have been 446 in 2011 and 388 in 2012. Ah, I didn’t tell you the best thing about this statistics: These numbers are only of Seoul! There have been half a million cars in Seoul recorded and fined for speeding. Fines are given for speeds of 72 km/h or more and so probably many car drivers are driving high speeds of 80 km/h inside the city. (Source: 서울이 막힌다고 안심?…과속단속 이곳을 조심하라)
Deaths of Cyclist on Korean Streets
Another article focuses on accidents involving cyclists. In 2010 there have been 11,259 bicycle accidents, 2011 recorded 12,121 cases and there have been 12,970 accidents in 2012. In the last years couple of years, it seems like there wasn’t a large increase. However, if you consider that there have been only 6,024 cases in 2003, it’s an alarming number of traffic accidents. The number of cyclists grew due to it’s trendy image in the last years and promotion by the Korean government. Among the accidents around 300 have been deadly (2010: 297, 2011: 275, 2012: 295). Considering that the modal share of cycling is around 1% in Korea, this is a very high number of deaths. Teenager and elderly have the most accidents on bicycles. The article tries to highlight the reasons behind the high numbers. It mentions that the mindset about cycling has to change. Bicycle and vehicles are equal traffic participants. Cars have to raise more awareness on cyclists on the streets. (Source: 자전거 교통사고로 年 300명 사망)
Wow – the # of cycling deaths is insanely high. Here in the U.S., it is around 600-700/year:
http://floridacyclinglaw.com/images/uploads/blog/2011_NTSA_Traffic_Safety_Facts_-_Bicyclists_and_other_Cyclists.pdf
Modal share for commuters is roughly similar to Korea, at 0.61%:
http://usa.streetsblog.org/2013/09/19/census-american-bike-commuting-up-nine-percent-in-2012/
However, anecdotally, cycling time for recreation is much higher for the under-15 age group in the U.S., so that may somewhat counterbalance the slightly higher commuting modal share in Korea vs. the U.S.
Anyway, considering the U.S. population is over 6x, and # of employed is 5.5x, that is a huge discrepancy. (Plus, the fact that many here in the U.S. proclaim that “it’s a huge shame that cycling here is so much more dangerous than Germany, the Netherlands, etc.”)
Thanks for this great comparison to the US! It seems like that it’s better to be a cyclist in the USA than in Korea.