You might not have noticed, but Seoul has taken substantial efforts to make the city a
I stole this from the Korea Times
more bicycle friendly metropolis. An amazing amount of paths and bicycle infrastructure have been installed in the past 18 months. Don’t get me wrong, riding in the streets with the taxis and the erratic little green public buses is still far from safe, but conditions are improving.
As it is now, you can ride all the way to Dobaongsan in the north of Seoul, to Seoul Grand Park with out leaving the bicycle Path. Someone has also told me that you can ride to Bundang on paths alone as well, but I haven’t confirmed this. If you haven’t already discovered the hundreds of miles bicycle lanes that have been installed, go find them before it gets too cold. A year ago you could barely find a bike rack, now they are popping up everywhere.
The big news now is, you can now take your bicycle on most the subway lines! Seoulites might have noticed a metal strip has been installed on the stairs of many of their favorite subways stations. These are bicycle ramps. Props to the city, when they said they wanted to be come bicycle friendly, they got right to it. A new pilot program started this month, in selected trains, the first and the last car has a bicycle only area. I have yet to see one of these myself, but I’m looking forward to it. I think this is a great idea. Right now the best place to put bicycles on the subway is the area designated for wheelchairs. I think it’s important to improve the bicycle accommodations with out squeezing the handicap out of train real estate.
Cycle Seoul has written up a nice post about this subject as well. Cycle Seoul’s posts details which stations have installed the ramps.
You can now get on the subway with your bike . The lines are 1, 2,3,4,5,6,7,8. Two carriages at each end are open to cyclists on Sundays and national holidays. The stations in the table are equipped with a ‘slope’ for bikes.
The Korean Times also reported on this.
The pilot operation will start on Oct. 4 and bike-only cars will be operating on Sundays and holidays until next April.
The city will fix problems found during the pilot operation and expand the service to Saturdays from next May. Ultimately, the bike compartments will be available on weekdays, except during rush hour, by 2012.
The special compartments, located in the front and rear cars, will have two bike racks instead of the standard seven-person chair.
Forty trains on subway lines no. 1-8 will have bike carriages by October, and a total of 359 trains will be equipped by next April.
This piece on the on the Hi Seoul site says that secure areas for bicycles will be installed. I think the middle picture I took from the Korea times is a mock up of a secure lock up facilty. Hi Seoul says this:
Subway stations will also get bicycle keeping spaces where they can be kept securely. At the moment, Seokgye Station has a bicycle keeping facility. Eight other stations, including the Jamsil Sports Complex Station, will have bicycle keeping space by next February.
Has anyone seen this “bicycle keeping facilty” in Seokgye Station? Better yet has anyone used it? I’m curious as to how it works. The pictures on the Hi Seoul website make it look like a big trash compactor.
This is all exciting news. If you don’t have a bicycle get one now, its colder and prices are dropping. If you do have a bicycle, but don’t ride it much, check the map, and go out and hit those paths while you can still ride without mittens. The map is a little dated, so most of the bicycle paths have been completed since it was produced.
Lastly, here is a great picture of bike riders riding the train.
Ride on riders!…and then relax on the train.