▲ Vehicles head to their hometowns, viewed from a police helicopter near the Singal Junction in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, on the 23rd, a day ahead of the Chuseok holiday.
As the exodus for the Chuseok holiday continues on the morning of today (the 24th), the first day of the holiday, severe traffic congestion is occurring in various parts of the highways.
According to the Korea Expressway Corporation, as of 9 a.m., the estimated travel times from the Seoul Tollgate to major cities across the country are 9 hours and 30 minutes for Busan, 9 hours and 20 minutes for Mokpo, 9 hours and 10 minutes for Ulsan, 8 hours and 30 minutes for Daegu, 8 hours and 30 minutes for Gwangju, 7 hours for Gangneung, and 5 hours and 20 minutes for Daejeon.
Conversely, the estimated travel times from each city to Seoul are 6 hours and 30 minutes for Busan, 3 hours and 40 minutes for Mokpo, 6 hours and 10 minutes for Ulsan, 5 hours and 30 minutes for Daegu, 4 hours and 10 minutes for Gwangju, 2 hours and 40 minutes for Gangneung, and 2 hours and 20 minutes for Daejeon.
On the Gyeongbu Expressway toward Busan, traffic is moving slowly between Singal Junction and Suwon (3 km), near Giheung Rest Area and Nami Junction (90 km), and near Namcheongju and Biryong Junction (24 km).
On the Jungbu Expressway toward Nami, vehicles are crawling between Hanam Junction and near Gyeonggi Gwangju Junction (22 km), Icheon Rest Area and Hobeop Junction (4 km), Hobeop Junction and near Namicheon IC (8 km), Iljuk and near Samsung Hipass IC (5 km), near Daeso Junction and near Jincheon Tunnel (18 km), and near Ochang and Nami Junction (14 km).
The corporation projected that the homecoming traffic congestion, which began yesterday, will peak between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. today and ease around 8 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Traffic heading back to Seoul is expected to begin forming between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m., be most congested between noon and 1 p.m., and clear up around 6 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Total nationwide traffic volume for the day is projected to be around 6.16 million vehicles.
The corporation expects 510,000 vehicles to move from the metropolitan area to provincial regions, and 380,000 vehicles to move from provincial regions to the metropolitan area.
(Photo: Yonhap News)
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