This is a good pic of some of the different colour buses in Korea. Each colour donates the style of bus that it is. I am not sure of each one, but I know the blue bus is the express and does mostly highway runs. The orange one is similar and also does highway runs.
On the highway when you get closer to Seoul, there is a special 'blue lane, ' which only the buses are allowed to use. It is great as the buses never get backed up in traffic and can keep their time schedules right on track all the time. It is great when you are on one of them and you look out the window as you fly by all the cars stuck in traffic and backed up on the highway. The time is usually from 6am or something until 11.30pm at night. Anyone caught cheating into the lane during those times, gets about a 50 dollar fine or something; not exactl;y sure of the amount. It is a great idea and should be something every modern country should implement.
In Korea there are no left turns on green lights. Everything is done by the advanced green light. It prevents any t-bone accidents and helps the flow of traffic so much better. It was weird to get used to when I first got here, but now I am well used to it. Sometimes the pedestrians have to wait to cross the road a little longer, as there are two advanced greens from each direction at different timing schedules. It means really that you are standing there about 2 minutes more than what you would in the Western countries. I again, think this is a great idea and would completely stop the turning left accidents that are so common , especially in Canada. I was involved in 2 of them over the last 25 years or so that I have been driving.
One of the other things that I had never seen before was the u-turn lanes that they have here in Korea. There is a special lane, in the same lane as the turn left lane, where you are allowed to do u-turns. This is at major intersections too. There are very few cars that ever turn left off the road unless it is with an advanced green light or they do a u-turn on one of these lanes and turn right onto the street they want. What generally happens is that the car or taxi will actually drive past the street it wants to go left into, goes into the u-turn land and then heads back towards the street that it has passed and turn right onto it. It is awesome to see and I have even seen full size buses doing u-turns at major intersections. The driver can only do a u-turn if there is an advanced green or a green light in his lane. It is very safe and like I said before the flow of traffic is great.
Parking is a big problem in Korea and people will stop anywhere. I have seen them stop at bus stops, on main streets and block traffic lanes and not even care! Towing is not a bit thing here, only usually enforced at night for people who park overnight in an illegal parking spot that belongs to an individual or an apartment complex. I have never seen anyone getting towed during the day since I have been here.
