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South Korea Roads
Unavailable
Figure 11. Transportation System, 1988
Domestic transportation improved greatly during the 1980s,
and growth was evident in all sectors. The rapid improvement and
extension of public roads and the increasing availability of
motor vehicles contributed enormously to the mobility of the
population. Approximately 51,000 kilometers of roadways spanned
the country in 1988, 46.3 percent of which were paved. Express
highways facilitated travel between major cities and reached a
combined length of 1,539 kilometers in 1988, as compared to 86.8
kilometers in 1967
(see
fig. 11). The 1980s saw the increased
paving of roads and the building of ultramodern highways around
Seoul (especially in the vicinity of the Olympic stadiums) and
between Seoul and such major cities as Pusan and Taegu. In 1989
the government announced that it would start construction on nine
new expressways with a combined length of 1,243 kilometers. In
1996, when the expressways and two additional projects were
expected to be completed, South Korea was expected to have
twenty-one expressways with a combined length of 2,840
kilometers.
The total number of motor vehicles climbed rapidly in the
1980s. By 1987 there were approximately 845,000 passenger cars
and 748,000 commercial vehicles, up from a combined total of
about 744,000 in 1980. In 1988 South Korean automakers produced
504,000 vehicles for domestic sale and 576,134 vehicles for
export. In the first nine months of 1989, domestic sales reached
nearly 800,000 vehicles.
The expansion and rapid improvement of South Korea's longdistance highway system led to the growth of an excellent
intercity bus system in the 1980s. In 1988 there were ten express
bus companies operating a fleet of some 900 buses connecting all
of the major cities of Korea.
Data as of June 1990
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