Driver honks at runner blocking road, gets cursed out instead

A driver on a family trip to Jeju Island shared an account of giving a brief honk to a runner who had moved into the roadway, only to be cursed at in response.

The story, titled "Nuisance runners on Jeju Island," was posted along with a video on the online community Baebaedream on Tuesday.

According to the poster, identified only as A, the incident occurred in late September while traveling on Jeju Island with family. A spotted a man running along the road and, being a runner, initially viewed the scene positively.

"From a distance, I saw an older man running and told my wife, 'That's impressive — I want to live like that when I'm older,'" A recalled.

But the man gradually moved further into the road. Because A was driving an electric vehicle — which runs quietly — A gave a light honk to alert the runner to the approaching car.

The man's reaction was not what A expected. Rather than stepping aside, the runner shouted back with profanity: "Just go around me, you [expletive]." A said the honk was meant as a warning, assuming the runner might not have heard the car coming.

A explained that the road curved at that point, making it difficult to see oncoming traffic, and that crossing the center line to avoid the runner would have posed a serious accident risk.

"My elementary school-age children were in the car, so I just quietly drove past without saying anything," A wrote, adding: "These days, even in central Seoul, marathons shut down roads and inconvenience residents — I'm not sure runners have the right to take over the road as if it's their personal track."

Online commenters offered a range of reactions. "The problem isn't running itself — it's the attitude of not being considerate of others," one wrote. Others noted that some runners take to the road even when sidewalks are available, questioned why anyone would deliberately move into traffic, and suggested the man seemed to treat the road as his own private running track.