< Anchor>
There is a serious congestion in
the area of Seoul's Gangnam Station, where dozens of buses are stranded every night. It's faster to walk than to actually take the bus.

Why is this happening again and again even though there is a dedicated bus lane, reporter Kim Hyung-rae covered the scene.

< reporter>

On the night of the 12th, which was Friday, dozens of buses were stranded in the central lane, unlike the general roads that were pruned near Gangnam Station in Seoul.

Even when the traffic light turns green, it's hard to get ahead.

Dozens of buses tail off like this, and the congestion gets worse every time they pass a stop.

The congestion is not resolved as the metropolitan buses that are trying to enter Gangnam and then back out of Seoul continue to join them.

[Kim Hye-seung/Seocho-gu, Seoul: People walking next to me seem to be faster, so I often think that walking is faster than just taking the bus.]

I've ridden the trunk bus myself.

It took more than 1 minutes to travel from Sinnonhyeon Station to the vicinity of Gangnam Station, a distance of about 2.25 kilometers, for two stops.

A 20-minute walk is enough, so it's slower to take the bus than to walk.

The Seoul Metropolitan Government claims that the congestion is caused by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Tourism's permission to allow local buses to enter the city center.

On the other hand, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Tourism is in the position that it has no choice but to move to Seoul as the demand for moving to Seoul continues to increase due to the lifting of telecommuting after Corona.

Experts have suggested that as the demand for wide-area buses is increasing, it is necessary to reduce Seoul's dependence on city buses in the long run to prevent congestion.

[Yoo Jung-hoon, professor of transportation system engineering, Aju University: The most important thing is broad-area transportation. The city of Seoul should go to the center of the subway, and now let's reduce the load on city buses....]

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Tourism announced that it would order a research service in the first half of this year to come up with ways to alleviate congestion, such as adjusting metropolitan bus routes.

(Video Interview: Kim Se-kyung, Video Editing: Lee So-young)