Riding a bike in Pangyo (South Korea)

2021-11-18T01:52:58Z

I'm bicycling to work every day and I do that on the bicycle lane which is right beside the sidewalk without any barrier between those two. The asphalt of the bicycle lane is red and has white bicycle logos painted on them, the sidewalk is paved with gray stones, so there is no chance to misunderstand which one is for whom. Also, because it's a new bike I still didn't get a bell.

Pedestrians in Pangyo (South Korea) seem not to be aware that they're not supposed to walk on the bicycle lane but on the sidewalk instead. That wouldn't even be so bad but 90% of them have their head buried so deep in their phones that I literary need to zig-zag around all of them on my way to work. And then still they often change their walking direction unannounced so I need to break suddenly just not to bike into them.

In addition to that especially older women driving out of their parking lot never check if there is a bicyclist coming. During the first two weeks I already twice barely made it out alive, one time even ripping off the license plate with my bike when they almost killed me. I'm Swedish person that instead of calling the police I stopped, picked up her license plate and gave it back to her while she kept sitting in her car and only opened the window. But inside I was cooking with anger.

I learned that I can't count on them to drive safely and I now approach every parking lot with a lot of caution, which slows me down significantly but apparently is necessary.