'Studying Stocks' During Subway Commute... Ranked #1 Valuable Activity

Passenger Car-Subway-Bus in Order of Activity Value
Bus Shows Generally Lower Willingness to Pay Amounts

Seoul citizens who commute for two hours round-trip every day reported the lowest satisfaction when using buses. The most preferred mode of transportation was private cars, and the most valuable activity during commuting was consuming ‘stock and financial’ related content while riding the subway.

On the 25th, the Seoul Institute released the ‘Seoul Citizens’ Travel Time Usage Report.’ This report contains survey results on how much monetary value Seoul citizens assign to activities performed during commuting and school travel. The study targeted Seoul citizens who commute for two hours daily (round-trip).

According to the "Seoul Citizens' Commute Time Usage Report" released by the Seoul Institute on the 25th, a survey of 1,000 Seoul citizens commuting to and from work or school found that the average willingness to pay for activities during a two-hour round trip was 16,000 KRW per month for activities on the subway, 11,000 KRW per month for activities on the bus, and 18,000 KRW per month for activities in private cars.
[Photo by Seoul Institute]

By mode of transportation, Seoul citizens showed the highest willingness to pay an average of 18,000 KRW per month for activities performed while commuting by private car. This was followed by the subway (16,000 KRW) and bus (11,000 KRW).

The institute presented a baseline amount reflecting fuel costs and fares for each mode of transportation and then derived the average values from the survey results.

The monetary value of activity types (monthly) for private cars was ranked as watching videos (11,573 KRW), listening to music (9,428 KRW), watching news (9,308 KRW), and viewing maps/navigation (8,755 KRW). For the subway, it was acquiring stock and financial information (13,014 KRW), reading (10,487 KRW), and playing games (10,428 KRW).

For buses, reading (7,314 KRW), acquiring stock and financial information (7,145 KRW), and watching videos (6,326 KRW) were considered valuable activities.

Seoul citizens consider activities such as watching videos, listening to music, and reading while using transportation to have a monetary value of 11,000 to 18,000 KRW per month.
[Photo by Yonhap News]

The institute explained, "Although activities that can be performed during commuting by private car are limited, they are assigned high value. Many opinions indicated that activities on the subway can be performed with concentration and efficiency. The value of activities during bus commuting was generally low."

The age group that assigned the greatest value to activities during travel was people in their 20s and 30s. The institute analyzed that this was influenced by their familiarity with smartphone use.

Lee Chang, a research fellow at the Spatial Transportation Research Office of the Seoul Institute who conducted the study, said, "For citizens, travel time is not wasted time but holds certain value, and activities during commuting by private car are assigned the highest value." He added, "To respond to this competitiveness of private cars, Seoul City must put more effort into improving the public transportation commuting environment."

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