Are you fed up with cars blocking the sidewalk? Do you want to report wrongly parked vehicles but you don’t want to call the police and explain it to them in Korean? Kojects is going to show you how to report illegally parked cars in Korea through two apps. This post is going to focus on the nation-wide app and another post is going to introduce Seoul’s smartphone application.
If you search for 불편신고, you will find a couple of apps in the Google Play Store (sorry, I don’t have an iPhone to check the iTunes Store). The first one in the list is the official app for reporting daily inconveniences by the national government. It is called 생활불편스마트폰신고, roughly translated: Smartphone reporting system for daily inconveniences.
After the registration you see the main menu. There is a variety of categories. The order is: illegal parking, harmful businesses in the proximity of schools, bicycle-related inconveniences, report of road damages or application for public facilities (like CCTV), street name-related problems, littering, environmental issues.
So let’s select the first option.
Then it will ask you for pictures or a video as evidence. You can upload up to three pictures.
In the next step you have to choose the parking violation. There are three options:
– illegal parking
– illegal stopping
– parking on a parking spot for handicapped people
Parking means that a car stands with a turned-off engine for more than five minutes and that the driver isn’t in or close to the vehicle (in other words: he can’t immediately move the vehicle). You can read more about parking violations at Klawguru.
Each option gives you also a short explanation. Here it’s important that your pictures also capture the surrounding because the exact location has to be identified. Pictures or video material should show that the duration of illegal parking is longer than five minutes. Only in such cases it’s possible to fine the vehicle owner.
In the last step you have to give a detailed description of the situation. I don’t know if English is accepted or not. Probably the pictures/video are anyway more important than the explanation. And then you have to choose if you want to share the result or keep it private. I think that they will show the results in a public list if you select “공개”.
If you scroll down, you will see that the app already selected your current location. In the right corner you can send the complaint.
That’s it! The report will be saved in your profile. There you can also see if the inconvenience was resolved. This app can be used anywhere in Korea.
The next post is going to show how to use a similar app for Seoul.
Wow. Thanks Nikola! That’s a super awesome and useful post.
I speak, read, and write Korean. But I think I’ll try reporting in English to see if it gets any response. If so, I’ll report back so that people who are not Korean speakers can gauge the usefulness of the service. I can tell you for sure, though, that it’ll be useful for me!
The only problem is that I’ll probably use it too often…
Hey James,
the pleasure is mine :D
Soon I’ll post a blog post about Seoul’s app. That app might be probably more effective for reporting issues. Please share your experience of the app and changes in your neighborhood.
Great! I’ll be looking forward to it.
I can already see my first report. There is a small alley near my house. Cars park on the corner making it hard for traffic to get by. So the city designated those parking spots for motorbikes only. But everyone ignores it and parks cars there anyway. I’ll see if I get some results!
Wow, great info!
Hi Mr. KLaw Guru :)
Thank you for the comment.
Where can I upload videos of drivers not stopping for pedestrians at crosswalks?
Hi!
A good point, I never thought about that. It doesn’t seem to be supported by any of the apps.
I live on Geoje Si Island
For some reason parking on cross walks footpaths on busy intersection corners is an acceptable practice
Even the police accept this practice.
Why?
I live on Geoje-Si Island.
Geoje could be amazing. they call it the Blue City. Sady it is known by many as a dangerous and unsafe city.
Parking on Zebra crossing is accepted by local administration and local police.
driving through red lights is normal practice provided you have your hazard lights flashing
parking on the side walk is normal practice. forcing pedestrians to walk in poorly illuminated streets
parking on corners is classed as normal and often cause traffic incidents. often minor.
the island could be so beautiful Sadly it is dirty with rubbish dumped on the side walk, unsafe to be a pedestrian to walk. Authorities accept these dangers as normal and will NOT do anything for improvements.
You should try riding a motorcycle in and around Geoje. It’s almost like the motorists hold a grudge against you eing able to get to the front of a queue and take it upon themselves to add you to their target list for extinct species. The adrenalin-rush is basically a constant!
Cheers
Alex
PS: Ashley, were you ever in Zimbabwe? Your name is very familiar.