South Korea is a relatively safe place to live and ride (compared to the States and Europe) along with neighboring Japan and Taiwan, where you can walk around even in the middle of the night without being in danger . ofcourse basic common sense is required as purse-snatching happens now-and-then road-side as well as crowded buses and trains, and extreme cases of kidnapping for human parts arise . taxi-kidnap or rape had been on the news perhaps up to the eighties as the nation was developing from its gruesome War .
less and less people take taxis in the Millennium more-so with bus and subway routes and time checkable in real-time via smartphone apps, especially since taxi fares has been rising constantly . all-the-while the government regularly come up with new plans – some which actually materialize and continue for the benefit of its citizens .
Ministry of Science, iCT and Future Planning had implemented a test phase of NFC Taxi Safety Service in the central metropolitan areas of SEOUL, inCheon and KyungGi DO province last Month and now announced the results were satisfactory, with roughly 30,000 people signed-up. I have seen this on one out of four taxi rode last Month in old downtown SEOUL . this is made possible via NFC near field communication enabling communication between smartphones . you will need to install the NFC app onto your smartphone first . then designate up to 10 close people to whom you want the signal to be sent to . as you get on the taxi you slide your smartphone on the NFC panel usually covered behind the neck-rest of assistant seat of the car . your smartphone app will instantly wire current information to designated contacts :
- boarding time,
- taxi company name,
- taxi number,
- current map coordinates,
however this is currently only available on Android systems so your iPhone will have to wait, while similar service has been recently introduced from insurance companies .
– Korea Tech BLog –
