"6.05 Million Vehicles a Day" Already Crowded... When Is the Busiest Day?

[Anchor]

Today, September 23, just a day ahead of the Chuseok holiday, the number of vehicles heading out for their hometowns on expressways nationwide is rapidly increasing. Let's connect with our reporter stationed at the Seoul Tollgate.

Reporter Jeong Jiyeon, could you first brief us on the current expressway conditions?

[Reporter]

With traffic heading to hometowns surging since the day before the holiday, congestion is building up on major expressways across the country.

If you depart from Seoul right now, it will take 5 hours and 50 minutes to get to Busan based on this tollgate.

The estimated travel time is 4 hours and 40 minutes to Gwangju, and 2 hours and 50 minutes to Gangneung.

Let's take a look at the situation through CCTV footage of expressways on major sections.

First is the Seopyeongtaek Junction on the Seohaean Expressway.

You can see that the traffic flow toward Mokpo is not smooth.

Around the Jukjeon Rest Area on the Gyeongbu Expressway, vehicles heading down to Busan gradually increased from 3:30 PM, making it difficult to pick up speed, but traffic has now returned to a smooth flow.

[Anchor]

During this holiday period, when is traffic congestion expected to be at its worst?

[Reporter]

This year, traffic volume for both going to and returning from hometowns is expected to concentrate all at once during the relatively short Chuseok holiday.

The Korea Expressway Corporation projected that the average daily traffic volume on expressways during this holiday period will reach 6.05 million vehicles, an 11.8% increase from last year.

It forecasted that the journey to hometowns will be most congested tomorrow morning, while the return trip will be busiest on the afternoon of September 25, the day of Chuseok.

[Anchor]

There must be many people leaving for overseas as well. How are conditions at the airport?

[Reporter]

Incheon International Airport expects a total of 1.14 million travelers during the Chuseok holiday period starting today, which is the highest daily average passenger volume among all past Chuseok holidays.

In particular, on September 27, the last day of the holiday, about 247,000 travelers are expected, which is about 7.9% more than the peak congestion during last year's Chuseok holiday.

Incheon International Airport Corporation announced that it will implement special traffic measures during the holiday, such as opening major departure gates 30 minutes earlier and expanding self-check-in and self-bag-drop services.

(Live reporting: Pyeon Chan-hyung | Video editing: Nam Il)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.