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Selected Elements of Korea's Non-Motorized (Bicycle, Pedestrian & Inline Skate) Infrastructure and Facilities Engineering

  

 

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Bike parking at Sangwon Temple
Click on any thumbnail picture in this article to see an enlargement of the picture.  		The following is a brief look at bicycle, pedestrian and inline skate facilities in South Korea.  It is by no means comprehensive.  The town with the most active bicycle program is Sanju. The county with the most active program is Jeju, which is discussed near the bottom of the article.  We have also separated out discussions on Daegu, Gyeongju and Sangju (bicycle capital of South Korea).

Also not explicit in the following is South Korea has thousand of miles of sealed, low to no volume, secondary, tertiary and tractor roads, which while not explicitly bike facilities, can be defacto bikeways and make for extraordinary pleasurable bicycling.  It has far more engineering and design elements specifically for bicyclists and pedestrians than are documented in this report.  Further more, the non-facilities aspects of bicycling are very positive; the country land use policies preserve huge swaths of agricultural and wilderness areas, and outside the cities, motorists tend to be very patient and courteous to cyclists. 

Your comments, suggestions and questions on this page are welcome at ibike @ibike.org

 		 Pedestrian only street, Jeju Pedestrian only street, Daegu Pedestrian only street, Jinju
The most lively, vigorous, and social sections of many Korean towns are their pedestrian only streets.  Because of land use and scale most business districts in Korea lend themselves to being pedestrian and bicycle friendly, especially when they take steps to restrict motor vehicles. These districts are the jewel of many cities.  They invite you to slow down and spend time in the area -- which, of course, is what the businessmen hope for.  Here are samples for (left to right) Jeju, Daegu, and Jinju.
Cheonggyecheon Restoration Project, Seoul, South Korea Another major pedestrian and environmental quality project in the heart of Seoul is the restoration of Cheonggyecheon. Prior to the restoration this heavily polluted stream was  completely encased and the corridor used for a highway.  The day lighting of the stream and installation of riverside walks, waterfalls and public art was completed in October 2005.  The water is now crystal clear.
Combined bicycle / pedestrian facility, Seoul Along major arterials the intent seems to be for bicyclists and pedestrians to use the sidewalks together.  While the sidewalk at this location is wide and clear, it is not uncommon to find them full, with bi-directional bicycle and pedestrian use, vendors, street furniture and parked cars.
Bicycle rack, Seoul This is the standard bike rack for Korea.  In this case, it is nicely set back from the traffic flow of the sidewalk.  You see them around Seoul and other large and small cities, and at museums, and historic and cultural sites in the country.
Informal bicycle parking, Seoul This is more informal bicycle parking near an entrance to the subway in Seoul.
Wheel chair ramp at entrance to Daegu underground Wheel Chair lift in Daegu undergroundThe raised entrance to the underground (left) is to keep torrential rains from flooding the system.  The ramp has been installed to help the disabled and there is a lift (right) that will take them to between the street and underground level.
Bike gutter on stairs to underpass in Seoul These stairs lead up from one of the pedestrian underpasses that are common under and along the major arterials in Seoul and other large cities with heavy traffic.  A particular feature of this set of stairs is the bicycle rail or gutter along the side to make it easier to use the system with a bicycle.
Pedestrian overpass with markings for visually impaired, Seoul The yellow pavers are to aid the sight-impaired.  The yellow bricks have a different texture than the others.  In this picture, there is a continuous yellow path along the sidewalk, which "T's" at the stairs.  There is a different texture of pavers at foot of the stairs.  While great for the sight-impaired, these textured surfaces play havoc with inline skates.
Sidewalk with markings for visually impaired, Hadong, South Korea Throughout the country, even in small towns sidewalks are built with colored and texture pavers.  This picture was taken in Hadong.  There are raised yellow bricks in the middle of the sidewalk, which "T" into a different texture of pavement at the intersection.  This also illustrates a standard that we don't understand as well, where green pavement is for walking and red is for bicycling.  Besides being very narrow, the red is adjacent to the buildings, and presumably there would be sight impaired users on the sidewalk as well.
In-street bike / walking lane, Hwacheon, South Korea On this street, which approaches a school in Hwacheon, on the right side of the street, pedestrians and bicyclists are expected to share a lane that is at grade with motor-vehicles.  On the left side of the street, pedestrians have a sidewalk, as well.
Car parked in bike / walking lane, Hwacheon, South Korea Looking the other direction at he same location, a car is parked in the pedestrian / bicycle "lane".
Pedestrian and bicycle facilities leading to school, Hwacheon, South Korea Here is more detail of the pedestrian facilities, in Hwacheon, as they approach the school.  Pedestrian movements are controlled by fencing.  There is a speed-bump to slow motor vehicles. Yellow textured pavers are used to assist the sight-impaired.
Pedestrian and bicycle facilities leading to school, Hwacheon, South Korea Still at the same location as the three preceding pictures, this pictures reinforces that even the best infrastructure isn't going to work as well if it is encroached upon.  The bicycle facility is also narrower than would be recommended by most design standards.
Car parked in bike / walking lane, Hwacheon, South Korea Also in the vicinity of the school, several cars are parked in the bicycle / pedestrian lane.  This seems to be fairly common behavior.

 
This crosswalk consists of essentially three lanes: a set of bands for pedestrians crossing left to right, a set of bands for pedestrians crossing right to left, and a narrower unmarked lane for bicyclists (at the top of the picture) - presumably crossing in both directions.
Bicycle shop, Hwacheon, South Korea If such a thing exists, this is a pretty typical bike shop; small, doors wide open, some of the stock spilling out on to the street and repairs being done right inside the front door.  Sometimes repairs are done out on the sidewalk as well. 
Bicycle shop, Gyeongju, South Korea Because of protective tariffs most bikes in Korea are domestically manufactures.  Import cycling equipment is relatively expensive.  The domestic bicycle industry produces a little over a half million units a year.  (By comparison, the domestic automobile industry produces over three million units a year.)
Han River bicycle path, Seoul, South Korea Aerial view of a small section of SeoulOne of the nicest features of Korea's bicycle infrastructure are paths along rivers.  In Seoul, along the Han River and several of its tributaries there are wide, flat, car-free non-motorized facilities. You certainly don't realize that you are in a greater metropolitan area of more than twenty million people.  Around the country, there are hundreds of miles of non-motorized facilities along rivers, including in Gyeongju, Jinju, Sangju, Busan, Hwacheon, Mungyeong and Deagu.
Han River bicycle path, Seoul, South Korea Korea cyclist on a day ride out of SeoulKorean cyclists are often well equipped and well dressed.  Many cyclist on the trail system use racing bikes.  All of the cyclist in these to pictures have nice mountain bikes, many with suspension.  There is much greater use of helmets by the recreational users (on and off road) than utilitarian users (on road). This facility (left) is also smooth enough for use by inline skaters.
Han River bicycle path, Seoul, South Korea Here, the path along the Han River, Seoul, bridges a tributary.
Bike and jogging trail, Jinju In Jinju there is also a non-motorized river side facility, but some of the facilities are on the left bank and some of the facilities are on the right bank.  Unfortunately they are not well connected to each other, but each facility is very nice by itself.
Bicycle, jogging, walking trail along the river, Jinju, South Korea Besides many of the riverside trails, the area in the flood plain and inside the dikes is sometimes used for other kinds of recreation facilities like basketball and volleyball courts, inline skating ovals and soccer fields.
Safety awareness course, Jinju, South Korea Part of the riverside trail facility in Jinju is this bicycle safety awareness course for kids.  It incorporates a variety of intersections, signs, signals, stripping, curb penetrations and traffic situations.
Traffic signs, safety awareness course, Jinju, South Korea As part of the bicycle safety awareness course for kids in Jinju is a display of international traffic signs and their explanations.
Bike way following the river, Hwacheon, South Korea Where riverside trails have been built, it is not atypical for there to be non-motorized facilities both at street level and near the river side, as seen in this photo.  The facilities near the river are generally in the flood plain so might not be accessible at all times.
Rural road along dike, South Korea Dike / levy roads and "tractor roads" are other features of rural South Korea that are very handy as car-free, and consequentially much more care-free, bicycle facilities.  They aren't always smooth enough to comfortably accommodate inline skaters.
Rural track, Geumil Island, South Korea Dirt tracks are very much the exception.  Except in the national parks most primary, secondary and tertiary roads are paved.  We had to go out of our way and ignore a beautiful paved, almost car-free road, to find this track.
Iron-horse, two-wheel tractor, South Korea This is a unique moment of heavy traffic on a rural road.  The convergence of three "iron-horses" (two-wheeled tractors) at once was very rare.  These machines, with different accessories, can be used to haul goods, till fields, pump water and take the family to town to do the marketing.  There are rural roads like this all over the country that make for very scenic, relaxing and enjoyable bicycle touring.
typical road cross section with wildlife overpass, Saraksan National Park This is a typical rural highway cross section, with the added feature of wildlife overpass.  Intercity highways in more densely populated areas typically have four lanes with paved shoulders.
Road with steep drop-off, Sancheon, South Korea This is a typical rural highway.  It doesn't give a sense of how wide the lane is, but they are usually plenty wide (three meters).  Even with the wide lane, there is also a paved space outside the edge-line. In this section the paved shoulder is narrower than most.  The picture clearly was taken for the sign.
This bus shelter, with its extensive route and system information is indicative of a transportation infrastructure that make is fairly easy to get by without a car throughout Korea:  The big city like Seoul and Busan, have subway systems.  There are commuter, intercity, express and high speed trains to all regions of the country.  There is even more coverage by the bus system which has city buses, district buses, regional buses and cross-country buses.  On the coast there is an extensive system of ferries serving hundreds of islands.  We a combination of these you can get to almost every village in the country.
Expressway construction near Uljin, South Korea Cycling may get even better on rural roads:  Throughout the country there is a huge amount of construction on express ways.  These roads tunnel in onside of a hill and pop out the other and then float above the valleys in between the mountains.  As they get completed they pull long distance traffic off the old highways leaving more spaces for cyclists.
Women doing errands by bicycle, Hadong, South Korea A group of women cyclists in Hadong -- some use the roadway and others use the sidewalk.   Per-capita, bicycling seems to be more common in small towns and villages.
Woman and child doing errands by bicycle, Gapyeong Woman doing errands by bicycle, GapyeongWoman and child (left), and woman (right) doing errands by bicycle, Gapyeong.  They are using the main road surface of a main arterial.
Kids on a recreational bicycle ride, Jinbu, South Korea These kids, in Jinbu, seem to be out for a recreation ride.  They were very disciplined at getting off there bikes to cross roads as they road across town.  Kids took advantage of the various forms of grade separated bicycle facilities a lot.
Inline skaters on a day tour. Flanked by warning vehicles ahead and in the rear, inline skating clubs take day-tours along the country roads in the flat river valleys.  This group, passed between Hadong and Gurye, had a couple dozen members in it.
South Korea bike tourer South Korea bike tourerTouring cyclist seem to be very rare in Korea outside of Jeju Island, but this is one fellow traveler that I met.  He had cycled from Seoul to the southeast part of the country in less that a week.  Using a more serpentine route it had taken me three times as long.
Daegu
Park, Daegu Park, DaeguAnother nice quality of Korea's third largest city, Daegu, at least in the center of town, is parks and open space.  They have a program to plant trees, create parks, and remove street walls.  The effort has already created a positive impact on the local climate -- cooler summers.

Daegu, while mostly flat, with a moderate climate, doesn't serve wheeled non-motorized travel as well.  The little roads are generally discontinuous and in direct, and the continuous roads are huge -- multi-lane, high speed and offer no accommodation to non-motorized vehicle or the intended facilities are the sidewalk that have irregular surfaces, are used for parking, or have other impediments.  Daegu has both bicyclists and inline skaters advocating for transportation alternatives (www.dgcn.org and Daegu Green Consumer Network Meeting).  While out in a group it is possible to commander a lane and feel pretty comfortable.  Commuting solo there is no comfort zone and the traffic is pretty aggressive and intimidating.
Concrete objects blocking the sidewalk, Daegu The situation on this street in Daegu, which at times is packed with pedestrians, is a narrow street, where, very appropriately, authorities don't want any parking -- particularly on the sidewalks. But, instead of solving the problems by educational initiatives and intensive enforcement directed at motorists, they have placed a lot of low lying cement obstacles on the sidewalk.  So the treatment itself is directed at motorists, but the greatest negative impact of the treatment falls on pedestrians, who already must negotiate utility poles and a variety of other obstacles.
Big street, wide crosswalk, but half of it is blockes. Detail of crosswalk blocked by telephone booth and kiosk.These pictures, also in Daegu, show a wide crosswalk, crossing a wide road, but on closer examination (right) half of the crosswalk is blocked by telephone booths, poles and other objects.
Gyeongju / Lake Bokum Resort / Bulguksa (Temple)
  While bicycling is relatively rare in most medium and large size cities in South Korea, Gyeongju is an exception.
Grade separated bicycle / pedestrian underpass, Gyeongju Gyeongju is the center of cultural and recreational tourism activity that has a bit of a network of non-motorized facility but they don't always ace the implementation.  At the left is a nice facility where a grade separated underpass has been build for pedestrians and bicyclists.  Similar facilities have been built in other areas, include as part of railroad underpasses in relatively rural areas.
Bicycle parking at Gyeongju Station Informal bicycle parking in Gyeongju, South KoreaBicycle parking areas like that at Gyeongju railroad station (left) seem to be rare in the downtown area.  It is more common to see bicycles parked opportunistically on the street (right).
Group bike day-trip, Gyeongju, South Korea Rental bikes, including a tandem, GyeongjuA common weekend activity is to rent bike with a group of friends and tour the city, or go for a more rural bike tour.  Bicycle rental business often have tandems (bicycles-built-for-two) available for rent as well.
Group bike day-trip, Gyeongju, South Korea Nun touring the cultural sites of Gyeongju by bike.A group of young women (left) are taking a bike tour of the cultural sites in Gyeongju and a group of nuns (right) doing the same..
Tandem bike, bicycle-built-for-two, South Korea Here, a couple enjoys their excursion on a tandem.  As seen in this picture and the preceding frames, an excessively lower seat height is the norm among most of the cyclists in this area.  This suggests that they aren't regular bicyclists.  Their technique would support this hypothesis -- all the more reason to make sure that facilities are designed to the highest standards.
Bicycle, blading and walking paths, Gyeongju, South Korea Three parallel facilities have been built in the flood plain at Gyeongju.  The one near the river is designated for walkers, the path to the right of it is for inline skaters and the third is a bicycle path.  There are also bike/ped facilities at street level.
Pedestrian, bicycle bridge, Gyeongju, South Korea This pedestrian and bicycle bridge crosses the flood plain, and over the river side non-motorized trails.  It connects the central business district of Gyeongju with a university area.  The trip by motor vehicle is several kilometers longer.
This is a typical red and green sidewalk linking Gyeongju and Lake Bomun Resort area.  The green is intended for pedestrians and the red is for bicyclists.  The street trees are in the pedestrian half so they shouldn't affect bicyclists too much, unless pedestrians step into the path of a bicyclest to avoid a tree.  The uneven surface of the pavers is annoying for cycling and totally discouraging for inline skaters.
On the other side of the road from the facility above is the facility shown on the left.  It is divided into two lanes and wide enough for two-way traffic, and it is generally smooth enough for inline skaters.  It also has some nice features like barriers to keep cars off of it and pull-out bike parking areas.
This trail is seen going from Lake Bomun on the north side of Bukcheon towards Gyeongju.
The road on the west side of Lake Bomun has a bike facility/sidewalk on only one side of the road.  The steepness of the hill is not very apparent in the photo, but it means that cyclists going up hill will be going slow and a possibly a little wobbly and cyclist going down hill will be going fast and potentially a little wobbly.  Generally, this speed differential and dynamic indicates that you need a wider facility for a given volume of traffic than you would need for a flat area, but this facilities with its street trees and fat light stand bases is functionally narrower.  As you go further towards Bulguksa the terrain gets hillier and sidewalk facilities degrade and the traffic situations get more complex.  Hopefully the skills of the recreational bicyclists going that directions ramp-up appropriately quickly.
  Sangju (Bicycle Capital of South Korea)
Bike facility on the outskirts of Sangju Bike facility on the outskirts of SangjuThe bicycle facilities in Sangju start well before you get into town, but first impressions might make you apprehensive.  The spaces is wide enough and generally smooth enough to be admirable, but they have a lot of penetrations (driveways and cross traffic) and suffer from the chronic phenomena of being used for car parking, as can be seen in both of these photos.
Sangju City, South KoreaFurther into town the Sangju's commitment becomes more apparent.  The Nakdong River and its tributaries run along the north and east side of the town.  The are trail facilities along most of the dikes, with underpass for grade separated crossing at the major road.  The city itself is set in a flat valley, among hills, which makes it very bicycle friendly.
Arterial road on the west side of SangjuAs the arterials approach the town center, the pedestrians and bicyclists are provided separate facilities and the bike lane is separated from the motor vehicle lane by a physical barrier so there is less parking in the bike lane.  Some bicycle transportation engineers would question the safety of this style of barriers and segregating the bike lane with a physical barrier raises other issues, but Sangju is at least demonstrating a commitment by investment to bicycling.
Bicycle sculpture, Sangju, South Korea Bicycle sculpture, Sangju, South KoreaBicycle sculpture, Sangju, South KoreaSangju further declares its commitment to bicycle transportations with its investment in bicycle area.  The sculpture on the left is along Rt 25, the main east-west highway in town, and the sculpture on the right is in a riverside park. Sangju also host a big bicycle festival every year in the fall.
This bridge has been retrofitted with barriers and half of this bridge is blocked to motor vehicles and dedicated to bicycle traffic.  In our very short survey the bicycle side was carrying more traffic than the motor vehicle side!
In the downtown core some of the streets around the market are blocked to motor vehicles and on the main street there are bike racks every 100 meters -- which are heavily used.  City official say that there are about 85,000 bicycle in the city.  An average of two bicycles per household.  Elsewhere there is the statistic that Sangju has a population of about 120,000, which puts the average house at about three persons.
The number of students using bicycles is given as approximately 14,000.  When the school day ends they flood the streets heading in all directions.
Outside downtown, there is a 63㎞-long bike path, which is paved with asphalt made from recycled rubber and lit at night with solar powered lights (right).
Sangju Bicycle Museum Sangju Bicycle Museum, interiorFittingly, Sangju is also home to the Bicycle Museum.  It is built on the site of a closed school, about 5 km west of the center of town.  You can get there on the riverside trail, but it is not well signed.  Besides a variety of exhibits on the the history and technology of bicycles, there are a variety of bicycle out in the front that visitors can try for themselves.
  Jeju-do (Cheju Island)
Boardwalk with public art, along the seawall in Jeju City, Jeju Island The waterfront in Jeju City, Jeju Island, is a beautiful, broad, promenade along a seawall.  For the length of the wall there were a variety of decorative treatments and sculptures based on local themes.  It is an excellent car-free space.

Non-motorized accommodation on Jeju Island is interesting because the facilities are fairly wide spread, but rarely great.  It seems to be mainly designed to serve visitors (tourism is one of Jeju's main economic sectors). But, should bicycle tourism really become popular it could be frightening because most of the facilities are for minimum capacity and poorly implemented.  For better or worse, this is unlikely to occur because there is so much accommodation of motor vehicles they are on there way to dominating every corner of the island, squelching most hope to entice people on to bicycles and develop a more environmentally friendly model of tourism.
Bike lane, highway 12, Jeju Island, South Korea A major feature of Jeju Island is almost continuous bicycle lanes on highway 12, which circumnavigates the island.  Generally there are bike lanes on both sides of the roads.  The facilities tend to be the best where they are least likely to be used.
Bike lane, highway 12, Jeju Island, South Korea Outside of built-up areas the Jeju highway 12 bike lanes are separated from the main travel lanes and wide enough to be used by farm equipment and light duty trucks as access roads.  Because highway 12 is often a limited access road way, several times I encounter cars and tractors driving the wrong way down the side lane to access some property. The farm equipment in particular deposits clods of mud on the track and because of the barrier between them and the main road they never get blown clean by the high speed traffic.  Often they are much worse that shown here, with deposits of sand, gravel and broken glass.
Bike lane with bus shelter, highway 12, Jeju Island, South Korea At this point Jeju highway 12 has been widen to add a bus stop pullout.  While in some cases the bike lane was pulled back even further to accommodate a bus passenger waiting shelter between the bus pullout and the bike lane, in this and numerous other situations the shelter was built over the "bike lane".
Bike lane with parked car, highway 12, Jeju Island, South Korea As highway 12 comes into built up areas, the bike facility tends to be grade separated and combined with a sidewalk.  These sections often are also characterized by a lot of cross penetration, sharp curb lipps and undulation of the riding surface.  Parked cars are another frequent obstacle.
Bike lane, with parked, highway 12, Jeju Island, South Korea This picture highlights the large lip that is common at curb ramps, the numerous cross penetration of the facility, the undulation and the use of the non-motorized facility by motor-vehicles.  Because of the "friction" bicycle travel in these sections is very slow.  Or, the inclination is move to the more free-flowing and much better road surface, but cars seem to react with the attitude of "get off the road and on to the bike path!"  While in most of South Korea, drivers were very patient with bicyclist, Jeju Island tend to be one of the exception.
Car parked in bike lane, Jeju Island One of the nicest aspects of Jeju Island are the "shore roads".  In 2004, these were  discontinuous, which kept motor-vehicle traffic volumes down, the scenery uncluttered and the atmosphere tranquil.  But, the bike lane adjacent to the road is even more discontinuous, and where they exists they are often used for parking.
Narrow street of coastal village, Jeju Island Currently, the "shore road" still has missing links and goes through the narrow streets of many seaside villages.  This "road diet" keeping the buses off much of the route and slows cars down so that they choose to take highway 12 instead.  Unfortunately, there is currently a project to connect many of the isolated sections of shore road by building big roads through and on the coastal side many of these villages, bisecting them or cutting them off from the shore.  Consequently they are destroy some of the islands reserves of tranquility and opportunities to promote strong high quality ecotourism.  We predict that both lost opportunities that will be deeply regretted in twenty years.
Abrupt end of bike lane on shore road, Jeju Island Here the bike lane on the shore road abruptly ends.  Presumably you are suppose to wait for a helicopter to take you to the next section or turn back.  If you turn back, you will find that there is a bike lane on only one side of the road.  In the off season traffic volumes are pretty low so it is not a problem to ride in the road.  Many people seem to feel like they should ride the wrong way in the narrow bike lane, which when they meet an on-coming cyclists and on coming traffic together, creates a potential very dangerous situation.
Car parked in bike lane, Jeju Island Another of the frequent cars parked in the bike lane.  This picture is clearer that there is only a bike lane on one side of the road.  This bike lane is very discontinuous as well.  There is a critical need for additional training in bicycle traffic engineering for the road engineers of the local jurisdiction.
  Etc.
coffee machine with bicycle graphic coffee machine with bicycle graphicCoffee machines are almost ubiquitous.  They can be on almost every block in a city, inside business, at any kind of roadside attraction and stand alone in a gravel parking lot.  The machine on the left is inside a bank and features a bicycle graphic.  The machine on the right, located next to the parking lot at the visitors center for a dam projects, features a bicycle for three -- a nice family outing.  I saw three people on a bike, but it was a regular one-seat bike.

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