[Anchor]
Traffic on the nation's highways remains congested at this hour, with many families heading in and out of the capital region on this Lunar New Year's Day.
Some 480 thousand vehicles were expected to leave the Seoul metropolitan area today alone, while the same number of cars were estimated to be heading back into the capital.
Sehhyeong Kim reports.
[Reporter]
Although traffic has improved slightly in expressways, cars continue to be backed up in both ways in and out of the capital region.
The Korea Expressway Corporation says over 6 million vehicles will hit the roads today leading to a traffic mess that will last through the evening.
Rest areas along the expressways are also heavily crowded.
Seoul-bound expressways are expected to ease around 2 or 3 a.m. tomorrow, while delays will let up at around 11 p.m. or midnight in the opposite direction.
As for the current estimated drive time, it will take 5 hours 50 minutes from Seoul to Busan, 4 hours to reach Gwangju and 3 hours to Gangneung.
The traffic heading back to Seoul is also congested with the estimated time from Busan being 5 hours 50 minutes, from Daejeon 3 hours 10 minutes, and from Daegu 4 hours 40 minutes.
All expressways across the country will be toll-free until tomorrow.
Sehhyeong Kim, eFM News.■
<Photo: Yonhap News>
