Anchor: Ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday, the mass movement of people heading to their hometowns or elsewhere has begun. Even though this year’s Seollal holiday is shorter than last year’s, holiday traffic is expected to be just as severe if not worse, as more than 27 million people are expected to travel abroad or within the country.
Our Bae Joo-yon has more.   

Report: The mass exodus that heralds the start of the Lunar New Year holiday has begun, with vehicles already starting to cram major highways on Friday.  

According to the Korea Expressway Corporation, some five and a half million vehicles were set to hit highways on Friday. 

This year, 27-point-eight million people are expected to be on the move during the holiday period, according to a transport ministry forecast released earlier in the week. 

That’s nearly 54 percent of the nation’s population. 

The figure is down some 13 percent from last year, when the Lunar New Year holiday lasted nine days. 

However, the daily average number of travelers is expected to climb some nine percent due to the shorter holiday. 

Daily average traffic is expected to be around eight-point-three million trips between Friday and Wednesday, with authorities having designated a special traffic measures period during that time.  

Of the 27-point-eight million, 31-point-four percent plan to travel domestically or abroad. 

A ministry official predicted more congestion and longer travel times. 

Authorities expect the number of travelers to peak on the morning of Lunar New Year’s Day, which falls Tuesday.

Compared with previous years, drivers should expect to add up to 15 minutes to their driving time if departing from the capital region.  

According to transport ministry estimates, it will take an average of three and a half hours to drive from Seoul to Daejeon, located some 140 kilometers away, instead of the usual two to two and half hours.  

The ministry also forecast that it will take five and a half hours to get to Gwangju, which is around 300 kilometers away, more than an hour longer than usual. 

The usual four-and-a-half-hour trip from Seoul to the southern port city of Busan, 390 kilometers away, is expected to take seven hours. 

But the roads will likely be much more congested for travelers returning to Seoul. 

Starting Tuesday afternoon, authorities anticipate that capital-bound drivers departing from Daejeon will be on the road for more than five hours, while the trip could take nearly nine hours from Gwangju and at least ten hours from Busan. 

To ease traffic and accommodate travelers, operators of buses, trains, airplanes and passenger ferries will increase the number of routes by 12-point-seven percent and the number of seats by nine-point-seven percent. 

For those who decide to hit the roads, expressway tolls will be waived from Sunday through Wednesday. 
Bae Joo-yon, KBS World Radio News.