Walking on the Right

A subway station on the newly opened Line 9, in Seoul.

Recently, the South Korean government started a campaign to encourage its citizens to walk on the right side, rather than the left. In many public spaces, such as subway stations, one sees arrows indicating which side of the hallways or staircases to walk. Sometimes there are even pedestrian traffic officials directing people to the correct side.

Even though cars are driven on the right in Korea, people tend to walk on the left. This is atypical; in most countries people walk and drive on the same side. This discrepancy of walking on the left and driving on the right in Korea is explained by the two major cultural influences on South Korea during the last century – Japan and America.

During the Japanese occupation people were ordered to walk on the left which is still the Japanese custom. Upon enquiring why Japanese walk on the left, it has been explained to me that the reason involves swords. Yes, swords. In feudal Japan many Japanese people carried swords. The swords would be tightened to the left hip, so that the right arm could easily pull the weapon from its scabbard. If people walked on the right side the scabbards would clash; however, walking on the left side, people would pass each other’s right sides (non sword carrying side), which cause for smoother pedestrian traffic. Well, this same sensibility was enforced during Japan’s occupation of Korean from 1910 to 1945, and since it was a good custom there never was a reason to change this habit. Unlike Japan who also drives on the left, Korean cars drive on the right.

Korea imported it’s automobile traffic system from America. In the sixties when South Korea started to develop its traffic infrastructure they copied it from America, hence the many lanes for its main roads (very unlike Japan). Of course, they not only incorporated the form, but also the method (i.e. driving on the right); hence the discrepancy between walking on the left and driving on the right.
So why this change now from walking on the left to walking on the right? It seemed to have been working fine; but an official explained that “…when Koreans go abroad, they hit foreigners. And vice versa, foreigners come to Korea and bump into Koreans." From this context I have to assume that “abroad” does not take into account Japan, the United Kingdom, most of the British Common Wealth, and many other countries that both drive and walk on the left. But then again, having spent a lot of time with Koreans, for a majority of them “abroad” means the United States, not the rest of the world.

It is claimed that the switch over “could reduce collisions between cars and pedestrians by up to 24 percent because crosswalks are currently set up for “walk right.” In addition, the institute claims pedestrians will walk up to 70 percent faster and pedestrian density will decrease as much as 58 percent once walking becomes more structured”. In Korea there is a bbali!-bbali!-culture. “Bbali” means fast or quickly. Koreans often seem in a hurry and finding yourself on the subway at peak hours can be a nerve wrecking experience. So I’m not sure if going faster will be a good thing or a bad thing.