to evaluate the quality of buses which run in run expat-heavy areas: Hannam, Ichon, Itaewon, Seorae and Yeonnam.
It continues:
Each group will be comprised of about 20 expats whose mission it will be to check the friendliness of the bus drivers and how well the English broadcast service works. The monitors will be “mystery passengers,” like mystery shoppers who visit a store pretending to be customers in order to evaluate the quality of the service.
Comments, suggestions and criticisms from the monitor groups will be reflected in Seoul’s bus policies, the city government announced yesterday.
The G-20 Summit will be coming to town in November.
10 comments:
hmm...I wonder what's in it for the bus drivers...If they don't get any kind of penalty for their "bad service", I don't think they'll care much about it. Also, can't control the rest of the crazy people driving in the streets.
Then, if the bus driver thinks all foreigners are possible "mystery inspectors" (...let's emphasize mystery in a country where foreignes stand out A LOT) they'll be kinder to foreigners at least ^^;
I think it's mostly about getting at the worst of the bus lines, rather than individual drivers. I don't know if this is still in play, but my then-fiancée (early 2000s) had to take a horrible, horrible, horrible bus line to work along Namsan's southern road.
Even by the worst bus-driving standards in Seoul, they were horribly reckless, almost never stopping for the red lights after 10 p.m., paying no attention to the lanes in the windy road, and tossing the passengers around inside the bus like a salad.
They constantly got complaints, because that bus line, my future ex told me one day, was listed as the bus company that had to pay the most in fines for complaints. So yeah, there is a system where there is "punishment" for rude behavior and bad driving. Don't know why it didn't work for them.
And no HT for this either? ;)
kushibo, I didn't notice this in your post because I don't go through every link you have there. Your posts come up in my reader---already a collection of a ton of links---and I usually just skim the titles. No offense intended.
No worries. I don't expect people to read every item there (and I'm working on a way to organize the information better than just the categories I already use).
I only made comment (and jokingly so, of course) because I know you did read that post since you left a comment.
Anyhoo, the purpose of "loose change" for me is getting stuff out there that I might not otherwise have time to do; it's not getting it out there first. The only time I think a hat tip would be in order is if the item were from some unusual source that people wouldn't typically find in their daily news crawl, not the usual suspects like the Korea Herald. :)
Dangerous driving aside, my bus experiences in Korea have been far more pleasant---and far less expensive---than I've encountered in the US. From the article it looks like they're looking to make it a better experience for foreigners vis-a-vis language, but if they do end up looking at issues like speed and reckless driving, I'd hope they'd also work to please Korean customers as well.
The G-20 in Pittsburgh was a gift from the Obama administration to the mayor for his support, and I don't know a single person who was pleased to have it here. Save the emails, I'm sure Google will find me somebody, but clearly the decision to shut down the city and inconvenience the residents didn't sit well with a lot of people. I hope for Korea's sake this year's goes much more smoothly, and that the assholes who came to one of the US's most livable cities for the purpose of destroying it will stay home.
Brian wrote:
I hope for Korea's sake this year's goes much more smoothly,
One big thing Pyonchang had over Vancouver is that the Pyongchangers wanted the games and, typical in Korea for big events, local residents don't really seem to mind the terrific inconvenience of a major events. Indeed, many relish it. A bit different from Vancouver, from what I've read and heard.
That spirit tends apply for things like G20 as well.
and that the assholes who came to one of the US's most livable cities for the purpose of destroying it will stay home.
Keeping global eco protestors out of Korea is primary reason the ROK government switches Romanization systems every few years: It confuses the hell out of the riffraff.
There is nothing in the behavior of Seoul bus drivers that couldn't be cured by simple enforcement of traffic law. That goes for the rest of the driving population too: private cars, trucks, delivery motorcycles. Convince the cops that its their job 52 weeks a year and not a violation of the week campaign thing.
As for easing the bewilderment of foreign visitors...multilingual announcements and LED displays inside the bus would work wonders. If the subway companies can do it, so can the bus companies.
do we really think the VIPs of the G20 will be riding the bus?
Who is most likely to be riding the bus during the G20? protestors? supporters?
Perhaps Seoul wants to point out they (protestor/supporter) could have easily ridden the bus to city hall to fill out the forms for their permits to protest....
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