According to the latest data provided by Echelon Geolife, the average speed of movement of vehicles in Moscow has recently dropped by 4-15%. What is the reason and why did Muscovites travel much slower?
A year ago, the city authorities announced that the most important task is to combat traffic jams. Traffic jams on Moscow highways do not allow vehicles to move at a given speed limit.
Nevertheless, over the past year, the speed of movement on the central highways of the capital has been steadily decreasing. Mayor of the capital Sergei Sobyanin in April 2012 announced the decision of the city authorities to create a network of paid parking lots. This measure, he said, will help eliminate traffic jams and significantly speed up movement.
The complete elimination of free parking spaces will take place only by January 2013. Test parking lots will appear in the center of the capital only in November. Therefore, at present, cars are still parked in a chaotic manner. This leads to the formation of traffic jams, which reduce the speed of movement of personal and public vehicles.
It is impossible to say that the efforts of the city authorities aimed at reducing congestion on Moscow's highways have not yielded results. Reconstruction of roads between the Third Transport Ring and the Garden Ring, as well as an increase in parking spaces at the expense of sidewalks for pedestrians, have brought certain results. On weekends on the central highways of the city, the speed of movement of vehicles increases by 7.5 percent.
Unfortunately, on weekdays, especially during rush hours, traffic jams again form, and vehicles begin to move very slowly. The same situation is observed inside the Garden Ring. Regardless of the day of the week, movement speed is 15% lower than citywide.
How paid parking will affect the increase in speed in the center of the capital, only time will tell. The city authorities very much hope that the measures taken to eliminate congestion will help Muscovites move much faster on their own and public vehicles.
