Korea 2011: The Seoul Subway: Social niceties

I have already posted two addresses for the Korean Subway system.  On the morning of the second day, I made a point of taking pictures of the subways because they are so different from our railway stations.

We'll start with some basic practicalities seen at all the stations:

Sign indicating the train door which is a good one for transfer purposes

Sign for a good place for people in wheel chairs to wait

Sign for a good place to wait if walking impaired

Ok, this needs some explaining.  All the trains run in glass tunnels inside the subway.  So the doors of the train have to stop at specific points in order to line up with the doors in the glass tunnel.  Not only that, very specific coach doors have to stop at very specific tunnel doors as the various coaches in the various trains offer different facilities.  There are specific places reserved for wheel chairs on the coaches.  There are specific seats reserved for elderly folk, people with walking or standing impediments, pregnant women and women with very young children or babies.  That is not to say that you can't sit in the 'reserved' seats.  It is just that should someone for whom the seat has been reserved get onto the train, then you must give up your seat for that person.  Now look carefully at the various signs.  They are all 'embossed'. In other words, the sign can be felt as well as seen.  This is so that blind people can 'read' the signs too.  Note also the coloured tiles - in this case pink.  Firstly this colour is the colour of the line which ties back to the subway map.  In this case we were on line number 8, the pink line.  Also note the raised 'dots'.  These are so that blind people know to stop prior to that line and wait for the train, thereby not endangering themselves by standing too close to the doors.  Once again, not difficult to implement BEFORE paving the subway.  What it took was careful consideration of the needs of the commuters.  I was SO impressed.

Something which I did not pictorialise in a subway, but in a restaurant was the brolly cover dispenser.  In all the subways, there are little dispensers with two holes at the top and which are open in the front.  After one has been out in the rain and one's brolly is all wet, one closes it, sticks it headfirst into the hole in the top of the dispenser and then pulls it out of the front.  Hey, presto!  One's brolly now has a little plastic cover.  This is to prevent the floors of the trains and subways from getting wet.  How thoughtful is that!

Something else which I forgot to photograph is that all the stair wells have a little gutter on the sides just inside where the stair well hand rail is.  This is so that if you have a bicycle and want to store it in the spaces provided in the subways, then you can wheel your bicycle up and down the stairs as you walk.  Again very thoughtful.

AND on every stairwell there is a little moving platform attached to the handrail.  It is for people in wheel chairs.  The platform starts up against the wall, but attached to the rail.  When a person in a wheel chair arrives, they can start the process, at which point the platform opens up and drops to the floor.  The person in the wheel chair then 'drives' onto the platform and the platform starts sliding up or down the rail.  At the other end of the rail, the person can 'disembark' and continue on their way.  What is a bit unfortunate is that this is all accompanied by interesting sirens and songs.  These alert subway helpers to run and assist in the process.  Which is great.  Except that it alerts all the other commuters as well, most of whom stop and stare, which is the very last thing that someone in a wheel chairs wants.  When all is said and done, though, it does mean that the subway facilities cater to the needs of the physically challenged whether in wheel chairs or sight impaired.  

Escalator and stair transport for a wheel chair

 And here is an example of subway tv:

These tvs show educational programs, adverts, messages relevant to people in Korea generally.  At the bottom is the train track.  One can see where the train is in relation to one's station.  The little train icon has the number of the train on it, so that one can make sure that one is catching the right train.  Each doorway in the subway has one.

You see all of these things can be done.  What it needs is a society of people who truly understand the needs of the population BEFORE building or refurbishment takes place.  Then it takes a society of people who respect what has been done and don't set out to vandalise the facilities that have been made available.  For the record no one does.