[비즈한국] On the 3rd, the first day of the Chuseok holiday, highways are seeing significant congestion as homecoming traffic builds up in the afternoon, despite rain falling across the country.
The Korea Expressway Corporation announced that 440,000 vehicles are expected to move from the Seoul metropolitan area to other provinces throughout the day. According to the Korea Expressway Corporation, as of 1 PM, the estimated travel time by car from Seoul Tollgate to major cities is: 2 hours and 50 minutes to Daejeon, 3 hours and 50 minutes to Gangneung, 4 hours and 50 minutes to Gwangju, 6 hours to Daegu, 6 hours and 10 minutes to Busan, and 6 hours and 30 minutes to Ulsan.
The estimated travel times from each city to Seoul are: 1 hour and 50 minutes from Daejeon, 2 hours and 40 minutes from Gangneung, 3 hours and 20 minutes from Gwangju, 4 hours and 10 minutes from Daegu, 4 hours and 50 minutes from Busan, and 5 hours from Ulsan.
According to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, the total number of people expected to travel for this year's Chuseok is 32.18 million, an 8.2% increase from last year. However, due to the longer holiday period, traffic is expected to be dispersed, with the daily average number of travelers projected to decrease by 2.0% compared to last year to 7.75 million. Most people (84.5%) are expected to use private cars.
Traffic is expected to be heaviest on the way home from 9 AM to 3 PM on October 5th, and on the way back to Seoul from 12 PM to 6 PM on the 6th, the day of Chuseok.
From October 4th to 9th, the bus-only lane system on the Gyeongbu Expressway (Hannam to Sintanjin section) will be extended by 4 hours compared to a normal weekend, operating from 7 AM to 1 AM the following day, and highway tolls will be waived from 0:00 on October 4th to 24:00 on October 7th.