I lived in Masan thirteen years ago and one thing I particularly noticed was the number of buses on the road.  If there were ten cars, there were eight buses.  I’m mostly talking about public transit buses, so add on the myriad shuttle buses that every hagwon and dojang has.  The roads were already crowded, but everything moved pretty quickly.

Thirteen years later, there are many more drivers (including me) and more private cars (including mine)*.  I would like to see more buses but I do wonder if Busan has reached a saturation point with buses.  More are needed, as I have been turned away from full buses in the past -they were too full to accept new passengers.  Yet,the bus lanes are full of parked cars so the buses are swerving into other lanes.

—-my son is asking to go outside and I don’t have a full conclusion or ending to this post.  I mostly wanted to describe the problem.  I’ll finish here, by quoting an article about Bus Rapid Transit in China:

With their rising incomes and access to freshly paved roads, many will be tempted to emulate Americans and buy cars. Some will ride the gleaming rail networks funded by Beijing. But in the past two years, China has also become the world’s fastest-growing market for high-speed city buses.

In February, the southern city of Guangzhou rolled out China’s latest effort, a 14-mile stretch of a main road striped with bus-only lanes down the middle. The sleek buses race between raised stations that resemble train stops. Ridership has already shattered the figures of other bus systems in Asia. Now the system beats out the ridership of every metro line in mainland China except Beijing’s.

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* Note The Onion: 98% of the US commuters favor public transportation.  Seriously, I would prefer a bus ride if I could sit down and read during the trip.  That would provide added value for me.