The mean daily nationwide traffic between January 1 and March 31 was 143 655 563 vehicles, which was 9.7% lower than the same period in 2019 (159 044 566 vehicles) (Table 1 ).
Table 1 Average traffic per day in 2019 and 2020, and COVID-19 trend per day in 2020.
Date Traffic average per day Gapa (%)b Daily new confirmed cases (N) Released from isolation
2019 2020
Jan – 1st week 145 797 502 135 994 670 −9 802 832 (−6.7%) 0 0
Jan – 2nd week 149 049 737 148 389 105 −660 632 (−0.4%) 0 0
Jan – 3rd week 150 897 726 146 908 915 −3 988 811 (−2.6%) 1 0
Jan – 4th week 149 778 529 185 314 734 +25 844 728 (+17.3%) 10 0
Jan – 5th week 147 251 673 150 482 955 +3 231 282 (+2.2%) 7 0
Feb – 1st week 182 825 475 140 144 295 −42 681 180 (−23.3%) 6 2
Feb – 2nd week 162 747 801 165 831 722 +3 083 921 (+1.9%) 4 7
Feb – 3rd week 151 192 280 142 631 273 −8 561 006 (−5.7%) 176 18
Feb – 4th week 170 090 529 125 730 973 −44 359 556 (−26.1%) 2133 27
Mar – 1st week 164 855 643 123 492 052 −41 363 591 (−25.1%) 4430 117
Mar – 2nd week 154 628 156 132 054 132 −22 574 024 (−14.6%) 1319 713
Mar – 3rd week 158 348 967 136 602 840 −21 746 126 (−13.7%) 713 2611
Mar – 4th week 162 656 743 139 886 152 −22 770 591 (−14.0%) 679 4811
Mar – 5th weekc 176 503 164 137 714 570 −38 788 594 (−22.0%) 308 5567
Average 159 044 566 143 655 563 −201 776 965 (−9.7%)
Data: Public data portal, Korea Expressway Corporation point traffic data (date of access: April 1, 2020) (http://data.ex.co.kr/portal/fdwn/view?type=VDS&num=37&requestfrom=dataset#); Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC), South Korea COVID-19 press release (KCDC, 2020).
a Gap = average traffic per day (2020) − average traffic per day (2019).
b %: (average traffic per day (2020) ÷ average traffic per day (2019)) × 100.
c March 29, 2020 to March 31, 2020 (3 days).