What We Notice When a Street Makes Room
Several Seoul roads give more space to people than to cars on October 4. A street that pauses its usual function can change how the city looks.
NowHitz Editorial · 2026-10-04
On October 4, several Seoul streets are used differently from an ordinary Sunday. Yonsei-ro in Sinchon is car-free from 09:00 to 22:00 KST, and Jamsugyo is closed in both directions across the event section from noon to midnight. Central roads also face staged morning closures for the reenactment of King Jeongjo’s royal procession.
Road closures register first as inconvenience. A familiar bus is diverted, a walk grows a block longer, and meeting times need more margin. In a city built around efficient movement, a road that pauses can look like lost time.
Yet a street is not only a channel for passing through. When people walk where cars usually run, linger on a bridge above the river or trace an old procession through today’s streets, the same place takes on a different scale and tempo. A routine corridor becomes a destination without any new landmark being built.
That is no reason to romanticize inconvenience. Clear closure hours, reliable diversion information and usable public-transport guidance are part of the event. Shared space works when one person’s pleasant walk does not become another person’s unexplained delay.
An emptied road is a small experiment in what a city can choose to put first. Speed is not the only measure of a good street. Sometimes a little extra time leaves room to notice the city we usually hurry across.