Moscow: Trying To Get Traffic Under Control!

Hello,

Twenty-two centrally located streets became one-way streets Sunday, amid an ongoing struggle by Moscow city authorities to ease traffic congestion.

The change — largely involving streets in a west-central area stretching between Pushkin Square, Novy Arbat and the Garden Ring Road — came months after 49 two-lane streets in east-central Moscow were turned into one-way streets.

The latest move is expected to ease congestion in the city center by 10 percent to 15 percent, City Hall experts said.

Traffic jams are an enormous problem in Moscow, costing the economy billions of dollars in lost productivity and commerce every year. The average car travels at just over 16 kilometers per hour inside the Garden Ring. Citywide, the average speed is close to 25 kilometers per hour, according to city statistics.

Every day, around 200,000 cars clog the city’s 6,000 kilometers of roads, and some traffic experts fear a collapse when the number of cars hits 300,000 by 2012.

The streets that became one way on Sunday include five ulitsas — Bolshaya Bronnaya, Bolshaya Molchanovka, Malaya Bronnaya, Malaya Molchanovka and Spiridonovka — and 17 pereuloks — Bogoslovsky, Bolshoi Kozikhinsky, Bolshoi Patriarshy, Bolshoi Rzhevsky, Borisoglebsky, Bryusov, Granatny, Khlebny, Maly Patriarshy, Maly Rzhevsky, Medvezhy, Nozhovy, Skatertny, Spiridonyevsky, Stolovy, Tryokhprudny and Yermolayevsky.