Expressway congestion begins ahead of Chuseok holiday

As the annual Chuseok holiday commenced on Wednesday, a massive influx of Koreans began their journeys back to their hometowns for family reunions and ancestral visits. The four-day holiday, spanning from Thursday to Sunday, prompts a significant increase in traffic on major expressways nationwide, according to the Korea Expressway Corp. By Wednesday afternoon, congestion had already started to build, with the corporation forecasting a surge in vehicle numbers.

Korea Expressway Corp. predicts a heavier-than-usual traffic flow on Wednesday, with an estimated 6.13 million vehicles anticipated to be on the roads during the day. Among them, 510,000 vehicles were projected to depart from the Seoul metropolitan area, heading to various regions, while 450,000 would be making the return trip from those areas to Seoul.

To provide a sense of the journey times, the Korea Expressway Corp. estimated that a 420-kilometer drive from Seoul to Busan, in the southeast, would require around seven hours and 30 minutes. Similarly, the route from Seoul to Gwangju, a southwestern city, would take approximately six hours and 50 minutes. The heavy traffic expected during this period underscores the scale of the Chuseok exodus, with families and individuals making their way across the country for the traditional holiday.