When Should You Leave for Your Hometown During Lunar New Year Holidays to Avoid Traffic Jams?

SK Telecom Announces T map Big Data Analysis Results
Prediction for Before 10 AM on the 23rd and After 4 PM on the 24th
Heavy Return Traffic on Lunar New Year Day Causes Congestion on Both Directions of the Highway

Graphic provided by SK Telecom

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Heung-soon] The best times to leave for hometown during this year's Lunar New Year holiday period (January 23-27) are before 10 a.m. on the 23rd, before 5 a.m. on the 24th, or after 4 p.m. on the 24th.

SK Telecom analyzed five years of traffic big data from its navigation app T map, which is used by 12.5 million people monthly, and predicted travel times by day and hour on major highways during the Lunar New Year holiday, presenting these results on the 19th.

On the Seoul-Busan route, outbound traffic to hometown will increase from 8 a.m. on the 25th, peaking at 11 a.m., with travel times expected to reach up to 8 hours and 30 minutes. On the Seoul-Daejeon route, congestion will peak at 5 p.m. on the 23rd and 6 a.m. on the 24th, with travel times estimated at 4 hours and 20 minutes. Additionally, congestion on the Seoul-Gwangju route is predicted to peak at 7 a.m. on the 24th, with travel times around 6 hours and 50 minutes.

For the Seoul-Busan, Seoul-Daejeon, and Seoul-Gwangju highways, both directions are expected to be most congested on the holiday itself, the 25th, due to returning hometown vehicles and outing traffic. Travel times on Seoul-Busan in both directions are expected to exceed 8 hours, Seoul-Daejeon over 4 hours, and Seoul-Gwangju over 6 hours. This is approximately 2 to 3 hours longer than usual.

On the return trip, the last day of the holiday, the 27th, is expected to have less congestion than the 26th. For Busan-Seoul, departing at 11 a.m. on the 26th will take about 7 hours and 30 minutes; for Daejeon-Seoul, departing at 4 p.m. on the 26th will take about 4 hours and 10 minutes; and for Gwangju-Seoul, departing at 2 p.m. on the 26th will take about 7 hours.

On the day of the holiday itself (the 25th), when traffic congestion is expected to be the worst on the return trip, the Gyeongbu Expressway is predicted to be congested over 174 km from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. The Seohaean Expressway is expected to have congestion over 113 km during a similar time frame, and the Yeongdong Expressway over 82 km.

SK Telecom stated, "As T map users are expected to increase significantly during the Lunar New Year holiday, we have secured additional dedicated servers and will monitor traffic conditions in real time to provide the best service to T map users."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.