Eight in 10 residents of 11 Gyeonggi Province cities bordering Seoul who commute to the capital for work or school have considered moving or changing jobs because of the travel burden, a survey showed. More than half spend an hour or more each way.
According to the survey on commuting conditions between Gyeonggi Province and Seoul, conducted by polling firm Opinions at the request of Rep. Kang Deung-gu of the Democratic Party of Korea, a member of the National Assembly's Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee, 57.3% of the 696 respondents who travel to Seoul for work or school said their one-way trip takes at least an hour.
Rail was the most common mode of transport at 61.6%, followed by passenger cars at 16.5%, city buses and reserved-seat (intercity) buses at 12.2% and wide-area express buses at 8.0%.
Fatigue from long commutes was also high. Of all respondents, 74.3% said commuting causes significant fatigue and stress. Among those whose one-way trip takes 90 minutes or more, the figure reached 96.5%.
Notably, 79.2% of respondents said they had considered moving or changing jobs because of the commuting burden. Of those, 21.7% said they had actually looked into specific options.
Asked which policy is most needed to ease commuting to Seoul, 38.1% chose increasing the frequency and capacity of existing rail lines. Another 34.1% called for building new urban or wide-area rail lines or extending existing ones, pointing to strong demand for expanded rail supply.
"Rail in the greater Seoul area is not simply a transport facility but national productivity infrastructure that cuts the time costs borne by millions of people," Kang said. "We need to look more closely at commuting and school-travel demand to Seoul, access times to rail, the number of transfers and existing levels of rail service, so that we can properly identify and actively support the areas left out of the rail network behind the label of the greater Seoul area."
The survey covered 696 residents of Goyang, Gimpo, Bucheon, Gwangmyeong, Anyang, Gwacheon, Seongnam, Hanam, Guri, Namyangju and Uijeongbu, and was conducted on the 1st and 2nd. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.7 percentage points at a 95% confidence level.
