Report shows Hongik has worst traffic in city

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Report shows Hongik has worst traffic in city

The Seoul city government yesterday identified the areas of the city that are the most congested based on the average speed at which vehicles traveled last year.

The most congested road with the lowest velocity was Hongik-ro near the main gate of Hongik University in western Seoul, followed by Supyo-ro near Cheonggye Stream in central Seoul.

The city government tracked the GPS coordinates of 31,000 taxis last year and analyzed 7.6 billion vehicle logs using a Big Data program to process the huge volume of information.

Cars on Hongik-ro cruised at an average speed of 12 kilometers per hour (7.4 miles per hour), far lower than the citywide average of 26.4 kilometers per hour. Those on Supyo-ro averaged speeds of 12.4 kilometers per hour.

The busiest time for traffic is Monday morning rush hour from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m., followed by Friday evening rush hour from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Also among the worst 10 streets were Chilpae-ro next to Namdaemun in central Seoul (13.5 kilometers per hour) and Mareunnae-ro near Myeongdong Cathedral in the popular downtown area in central Seoul (15.0 kilometers per hour).

Southern residential and business districts also saw traffic at snail’s pace in the clogged roadways. Yangsan-ro, Songpa District, recorded an average speed of 15.4 kilometers per hour while Yeoksam-ro in southern Seoul, where many office buildings are clustered, had speeds of 16.4 kilometers per hour.

“Residential areas or business districts are usually filled with many cars,” said Kim Young-seon of the city’s transportation information division.

“We hope that the citizens will use this data to find a faster way of getting to their home,” the official said.

Of all Seoul’s districts, Gangbuk District was found to be the least busy, with the highest travel speed.

“This type of a research is important when the city conducts reconstruction projects or refurbishes roadways,” said Kim Kyung-ho, head of the city’s urban transportation division.

People can view the detailed data at http://traffic.seoul.go.kr/ or http://topis.seoul.go.kr/.

BY PARK EUN-JEE [ejpark@joongang.co.kr]



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