Expressways congested on first day of Lunar New Year holiday

설 연휴 교통상황 We start... as is customary during major national holidays in Korea... with the situation on the nation′s expressways on this first day of the five－day Lunar New Year holiday. Millions of Koreans have been hitting the road，... leaving Seoul and heading to their hometowns to visit their families. With more than 80 percent of people travelling by car or bus，... major expressways across the country can get notoriously congested. Let′s get a check on the current conditions，... with our Oh Soo－young，... who is at a toll gate heading out of Seoul. Soo－young， how are things looking at the moment？ Hi， Mark. Behind me， hundreds of cars are streaming out of Seoul on the Gyeongbu Expressway. The traffic flow is slowly loosening up after reaching its daily peak at around noon... but drivers still have a long road ahead of them. Road authorities predict the nationwide congestion will only begin to ease sharply from eight to nine pm this evening. If you were to set off from Seoul now... it would take you an estimated five hours to get to Busan. To the southwestern city of Gwangju it would take three－hours－and fifty minutes... and just over four hours to Daegu. To the central city of Daejeon，... expect to be sat in the car for two hours and ten minutes. The Korea Expressway Corporation says more than four million people will be driving across the nation today. Overall， more than 36 million Koreans will be on the move during this five－day holiday，... that′s roughly three percent more than last year. And four－fifths will travel by car. MARK： Looking further ahead then，... how are traffic conditions expected to fare during the rest of the holiday period？ Well， the transport ministry says expressways will be the most heavily congested on Sunday and Monday， the actual Lunar New Year′s day. Roads will be jam－packed with cars on Sunday morning. Officials say that′s when most drivers will be heading out of Seoul to their hometowns. But compared to last year， traffic conditions should be breezier for those driving from Seoul. The average travel time is predicted to be one to two hours less this holiday. However， on their return， drivers could spend up to 40 minutes longer on the roads than they did the year before. The holiday traffic back into Seoul is expected to peak on Monday afternoon， as families finish up their new year celebrations. Road authorities forecast almost eight million people will be on the move on that day alone. That′s all for now from me. I′ll be back with more updates during our next newscast at 10PM. Back to you Mark. Visit ‘Arirang News’ Official Pages Facebook(NEWS):   / newsarirang   Homepage: http://www.arirang.com Facebook:   / arirangtv   Twitter:   / arirangworld   Instagram:   / arirangworld