On September 30, Seoul organized the Seoul Walk and Bike Festival (서울걷자페스티벌), an annual event to celebrate walking and cycling. It started in 2013 and since then, it always attracts a huge crowd of people. The slogan is “From Gwanghamun to the Han River”. It gives a unique opportunity to experience the city form another perspective and enjoy the most sustainable transport modes.
Seoul Walk and Bike Festival
The event took place on Sunday, 30 September, from 8 am to noon. 15,000 people registered (10,000 walkers, 5,000 cyclists) to either cycle a total length of 15 km from Gwanghwamun to Seoul Arts Center and back to Banpo Park or to walk 7.8 km from Gwanghamun to Banpo Park.
I participated as part of the walking group. It was nice to see a large diversity of participants: young couples, families with children and strollers, elderly and people with disabilities.
A great thing about the Seoul Walk and Bike Festival is that you get a new impression of Seoul. It’s really exciting, even if you cycle or walk often through Seoul. It’s often difficult to just take a look around without being concerned of motorized traffic and being exposed to noise and pollution.
After passing City Hall the route went to Namsan mountain. Both sides of the Namsan Tunnel No. 3 were made accessible for cyclists and walkers.
The logos of Seoul’s walking policy were projected on the walls of the tunnel (“I – Walk, Seoul – U” and “Let’s Walk, Seoul!”). To make it a real festival, a DJ played music at the end of the tunnel.
Seoul citizens want to walk in a better environment
During the online registration for the event everybody had to submit a brief message about how Seoul should be. The message was printed on the participant’s tag. I was very curious to see what people wrote and I tried to read as many as possible: Many participants demanded clean air, safe roads, more shadow and more trees for pedestrians, bicycle lanes, better and wider sidewalks and better accessibility for people with disabilities. Parents wanted more space and more playgrounds for their children to play.
It was very motivating to see that many people want a better city through more walking and cycling. This is a smart way to crowd-source information or ideas. I hope that Seoul will examine all inputs in detail.
Seoul is too big and too hilly to cycle
I often hear that cycling is impossible on the streets of Seoul: Too dangerous, too hilly, distances too far and so on. The Seoul Walk and Bike Festival proved that Seoul is in theory a great place to walk and to cycle: The city is compact and distances aren’t too large. On Twitter I saw that cycling participants reached the far end of the route (10 km) within 30 minutes:
Always amazed by how fast you can traverse a city by bike when there are no cars you have to stop for. #walkseoul pic.twitter.com/iKDeJkHTVW
— Paul Grau 🇰🇷 (@graup) September 29, 2018
Indeed, it’s amazing that you can get from one end of the 10-million capital to the other within 30 minutes! Of course, the streets were closed for car traffic and the traffic lights were turned off (or at least ignored) during the event. Seoul citizens on bicycles were able to fully enjoy the route without any obstacles or difficulties. So how great would Seoul be with a dedicated bicycle infrastructure network?
It was a great experience and I can highly recommend everyone to participate in next year’s Seoul Walk and Bike Festival.
