Seoul Police, Traffic Paralysis Around 'Banpo Hangang Night Market'... Future Response Plans Established

On the 26th, the 'Hangang Moonlight Night Market' held at Banpo Hangang Park in Seocho-gu, Seoul, was crowded with citizens visiting the event. Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

[Asia Economy Reporter Seongpil Cho] The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency indicated that it will control traffic from the entrance during future events following the traffic congestion in the Gangnam area caused by last month's 'Banpo Hangang Moonlight Night Market' event.

On the 16th, the Seoul Police stated in a press release, "It is analyzed that the bottleneck caused by the queue of vehicles entering Banpo Hangang Park on the day of the event affected Banpodaero, Olympic-daero, and the Gyeongbu Expressway." As a countermeasure, the police decided to close access to the parking lot starting from the Jamsugyo roundabout and Olympic-daero when parking lot entry becomes difficult. If the vehicle queue extends to Banpodaero and Daegyo, traffic will be sequentially controlled at the southern and northern entrances of Jamsugyo. Additionally, the police plan to minimize citizen inconvenience by expanding the deployment of traffic management personnel in consultation with the Seoul city government and enhancing publicity through additional installation of signboards and banners.

Previously, on the 26th and 27th of last month when the Banpo Hangang Moonlight Night Market was held, severe traffic congestion occurred around Banpo Hangang Park, the event site. In particular, the southern end of Banpodaegyo, known as a habitual congestion area due to the presence of the Express Bus Terminal and department stores, experienced extreme traffic jams. At that time, posts complaining about the inconvenience, such as "It took 30 minutes to cross Banpodaegyo" and "Banpodaegyo became a parking lot," were continuously posted on internet communities.

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