As citizens' complaints over traffic controls grow due to a series of marathon events held across downtown Seoul, the Seoul Metropolitan Government is expected to come up with fundamental countermeasures.
Seoul Mayor Sehun posted on Facebook today (Nov. 2), stating, "We will review the courses and schedules for next year's events from scratch."
He pointed out, "Due to the marathon event held yesterday (Nov. 1), major roads across Seoul, from Gwanghwamun to Olympic Park and from Sangam to Yeouido, were blocked on a large scale," adding, "As many as 190 city bus routes had to make detours in succession, and vehicles were gridlocked even on the detour routes."
Regarding this, Mayor Sehun bowed his head and said, "I take the frustration and inconvenience that citizens must have experienced on a precious weekend morning very seriously."
In particular, he noted, "While this marathon is a festival that runners have waited for all year," he also confessed, "We requested and discussed course adjustments with the organizers several times to minimize citizen inconvenience, but ultimately failed to prevent large-scale inconvenience."
He added, "Among recent marathons, events sponsored by the central government increased from 1 last year to 23 this year, and large-scale traffic controls exceeded 30 times this year," adding, "It is hard to easily find a major city that blocks downtown roads and holds marathons this frequently."
Recently, as marathon events have increased significantly in Seoul, civil complaints appealing to traffic inconveniences have also increased.
According to the Seoul Dasan Call Center 120, traffic inconvenience complaints related to marathons increased from 40 cases in 2021 to 411 cases as of October of last year.
Kian84, a webtoon artist and broadcaster who usually likes running, also expressed concerns on his YouTube channel, saying, "Frequent marathon events cause severe traffic jams on weekends" and "People might view running somewhat unfavorably because of that."
Reported by Jo Gi-ho | Video by Ahn Jun-hyeok | Graphics by Lee Jeong-ju | Produced by SBS Digital News
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