Traffic on major highways began to build up across South Korea on Saturday, as people headed to their hometowns to mark the Lunar New Year. The nation will observe the holiday, known as Seol, on Tuesday, with the period running from the weekend through Wednesday.
As of 8 a.m. on Saturday, a drive from Seoul to the southeastern port city of Busan, 330 kilometers away, was expected to take approximately six hours and 50 minutes, according to the state-run Korea Expressway Corp. A trip to the southwestern city of Gwangju, some 260 kilometers south of the capital, was projected to take four hours and 20 minutes. Traffic congestion on outbound routes from Seoul is expected to peak between 11 a.m. and noon, easing between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. In contrast, travel times toward Seoul were shorter, with the drive from Busan estimated at four hours and 30 minutes and from Gwangju at three hours and 20 minutes. The agency estimated that 4.85 million vehicles would travel nationwide on Saturday, including 460,000 cars leaving the greater Seoul area and 370,000 heading toward it. This buildup reflects the annual rush to hometowns during the Lunar New Year holiday period.
