Moscow Traffic, Nowadays

Moscow city traffic 

Earlier today we had a video from Moscow city almost 100 years ago, back from 1908.

And here is the photos of Moscow today. The accent of these photos is on enormous Moscow traffic. The situation on road like on this pictures was without any difference during all the day today – both in the daytime and late at night.

Moscow city 

Moscow city

Moscow city

Moscow city

Moscow city

 

Photos are from Dolboeb Anton Nossik.

55 thoughts on “Moscow Traffic, Nowadays”

  2. In the US that road would be elevated, so the auto and foot traffic could cross. Whether that is better or not is up for debate, as elevated roads create other problems in urban environments (although mostly aesthetic problems). The REAL problem is human overcrowding, overpopulation. Consider how many people live in China, and as China’s economy grows more and more people can afford cars, whereas years ago they mostly rode bikes. This Russian scene will look quaint years from now (if not already) compared to scenes from China.

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    • why build an elevated road for foot traffic when you can just build a tunnel underneath, as they have done in Russia? Tunnels are heated too. There’s usually one about every 200m so you’re never far from one.

      Reply

    • it would not be elevated in downtown New Yourk or Washington – and here is exactly downtown Moscow, sorry,but your comment has no sense

      Reply

  3. That’s about the sum of it as I recall. Russian drivers also seem to have an utter contempt for lane markers on some of the larger highways. Hell, sometimes you’d see two Ladas in one lane, inches apart.

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  5. To AntiRus, Just Remiande me how many lines have a street(Not an autoban) in standart european capitol? Coz this street here have 14, I belive.

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  6. 2 Flanger

    I’m just joking;) God! Im trying to get the mods to put up some really interesting photos of Russia. Like Bolshoi ballet or taking pictures of rich peoples houses or taking pictures of regular people.

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  8. If you take one of the main streens in any big city between 8.30 and 10.00 in the morning, and between 16.30 and 18.00 in the evening, how will it look? Clean and empty?

    C`mon, there are 15 million people out there, and subway can only handle 10-11 million a day.

    Reply

  9. But you know… that’s depressing. It’s not really nice to use subway; it’s not comfortable (and not clean) and really overcrowded.
    And when you get a nice job, better money and buy car, you can’t normally use it! Whatever you do in Moscow or St.-Petersburg, you can’t travel across the city with comfort.

    Reply

  12. and i thought new york city is only large city..( LOL )
    now i know there are even more interesting in part of the world..so long new york.

    Reply

  13. wow talk about time well spent. you could step out of your car and go do everything you wanted for that day go shopping eat food go to work and come back and your car wouldnt have even moved 2 inches. wow now thast fancy

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  15. Well, Moscow is a huge city and traffic is a big problem there, that’s given.. The problem not in the fact that roads are not elevated or there are no big junctions… The reason, like in most european cities, the huge part of every city was build long time ago and now it’s impossible to demolish all the structures everywhere just to put more lanes and junctions.. US with it’s short history is not an example here. There is also a problem of proper planning and traffic engineering, unfortunately.. But at least Moscow is was more beautiful than most US cities combined..

    To #4: Well, if the only way to get through is to create more “lanes” then it’s the only way.. I’ve driven in Moscow and I know what it’s like..

    Reply
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  21. The author of these pics – “Dolboeb” Anton Nossik – is the head of a company called SUP which recently bought the rights to the russian part of Livejournal.Com. Brad Fitzpatrick (who founded Livejournal.com) visited Moscow a few weeks ago to make this deal, since Russia has the second largest amount of Livejournal users in the world after USA, and, in Fitzpatrtick’s own words, “in Russia blogs are read by hundreds and thousands of people as opposed to just dozens in the US”.

    Reply

  23. I’ve got used to these traffic jams.. And I still plan to ride a car when I get the license. Just because it is better anyway than this damn dirty underground that i use every day..(

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  24. Hey! I think I see the Bugatti from the other story! It is right in the middle of the oncoming lane one third up the picture in the night shot. Can you see it?

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  26. So we talk about traffic/commute in big cities, huh?

    I lived both in New York City and in Moscow for years, so I can compare these two for you 🙂

    Driving in New York is as terrible as in Moscow, but more predictable. If you want to get in NYC at 9am, there are no surprises — you’ll spend hours crawling to Manhattan Bridge 🙂

    If you believe that Moscow subway is ugly and dirty… well it means that you have never seen New York subway 🙂

    CONCLUSION:
    Big cities face same problems.
    My impression is that Moscow solves these problems not worse than others.

    Reply

  28. I am live in St-Petersburg, and dont fill any problems if I move during my usual routes in known time, but if I need to go any other point… I cant stand it. Subway is much better. Best time for driving is night only.

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  30. OKAY PEOPLE, CALM DOWN

    I’ve walked this road and can tell tell you that it was way emptier when I was there…

    Mosown is faced with a unique problem called radial road structure. Essentially, all roads/arteries lead from outside dead into city centre, and are not doubled up, so if any delay happens (as they do), the roads grind to a halt and this affects other directions as well since the centre is a transit point.

    As for traffic from the right, this another Moscow problem: roads are wide and intergrated within the city architecture/planning etc etc, and cannot be elevated / overpassed (as in London) since this would plunge enire districs into darkness and disfigure the environment.

    Finally, those saying that russians are dumb because they do not have traffic lighs, well there’s a set right behind the viewing position. Finally, you cannot block an artery this wide with permantent traffic lights at all secondary as only a couple of these would halt the city.

    Many for this reason prefer the Metro. I would say that overall Moscow is way more efficient than London, but when something fails, you are screwed.

    Reply

  31. Americans can’t drive in places where it actually takes skill to drive. I have vacationed all over the world. In places like Manila, Shanghai, Moscow, and Bangkok, I have come across many Americans; not only do they all admit that they are afraid to drive a car in these cities, many admit that they are even afraid to cross the street! Some are actually humble enough to admit that they are not skillful enough to drive in these cities. If you have ever witnessed how skillful a driver in Manila is (he can drive a regular sized sedan even through the narrowest street, with less than a 1/2 inch clearance on both sides of his car and come away without a single scratch)you will laugh at an American driver who finds it difficult to even parallel park!

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  32. Russia is still the Superpower. Dare anybody attack Russia? It is not the weapon that make Russia the superpower but it the people. It has long history of struggle and wars. Even with the Russian people broken economically; they still have the best brains. The world needs Russia and its people.

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  33. Hey ProRus, I’m not anti Russian, but isn’t Russia in shambles? Between a male population suffering from alcoholism seen just about nowhere else, an economy still struggling, and a tyrannical President I’m more than slightly worried about the future of your country (and the world).

    This type of congestion wouldn’t happen in a 1st world country (sorry), something would’ve been done before it got close to that mess.

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  37. The only solution is build more freeways. The only cities in Russia that have freeways is Moscow. It is a fact that most Russians do not have cars but should prepare themselves after 30 years since the fall of the USSR. By then, more Russians will own cars and better roads are the solution. Any city with over 400,000 residents should have a freeway.

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  39. First of all Russia is a superpower, they have the world’s largest nuclear weapon arsenal, 10 times greater than the US, Russia’s economy is stronger than the US, BBC news reported this recently. Third they are an energy super giant and their military has been continuing to update in all forces of the 21 century weapons compared to the US and they have every domain of power in ideological, diplomatic and technological fronts. Russia is a superpower because they have the economics, the wealth, the diplomatic power, ideological, technological advances than any other country besides the US, they have the cultural sector and lets not forget their military levels (surpreme). The US is on the mist of a recession and several the US government agenices such as NASA are going bankrupt. Russia is on the raise and I main raise, the country is becoming super rich and now are being placed at the 5th fastest growing country in the world. This is many reasons, the US has annouced this several times and new agencies such as CNN news, Russia is a Superpower but the USA is still the leader but no longer the sole superpower, it is now 2 Superpowers; Russia and the USA

    Washington Acknowledges Russia as Superpower

    http://www.kommersant.com/page.asp?id=768929

    Also Russia is an energy super giant of the world as well.

    Russia Super energy power

    http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/index.php?storyID=4883

    http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/12/12/russia.oil/index.html

    http://www.russiaprofile.org/page.php?pageid=CDI+Russia+Profile+List&articleid=2015

    http://www.strategypage.com/on_point/20041130.aspx

    http://www.warpeace.org/article.php?story=20070414073647506

    http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:W9TVovUnRK8J:se2.isn.ch/serviceengine/FileContent%3FserviceID%3DESDP%26fileid%3D7BC1A58B-6D27-B7C1-9CAA-9E2793253DB2%26lng%3Den+Washington+Acknowledges+Russia+as+Superpower&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=25&gl=us

    http://www.russophile.com/russia_blog/5205-russias_superpower_membership_card_returned.html

    Washington Acknowledges Russia as Superpower

    http://www.kommersant.com/page.asp?id=768929

    http://bhtimes.blogspot.com/2007_05_28_archive.html

    http://www.spacewar.com/Superpowers.html

    http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Analysis_SCO_energy_ties_999.html

    Russia Dangerous Superpower (??)

    http://www.cambridge.org/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=9780521545297&ss=fro

    A Former Superpower Rises Again

    http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,426393,00.html

    http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,druck-426393,00.html

    Russia: A superpower rises again

    POSTED: 1203 GMT (2003 HKT), December 13, 2006

    Says Russia was always a Superpower

    http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/12/12/russia.oil/index.html

    http://www.beliefnet.com/boards/message_list.asp?discussionID=580084

    Russia on the march – again

    By Con Coughlin

    Last Updated: 12:01am BST 13/04/2007

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2007/04/13/do1303.xml

    Russia – Economic Superpower

    http://lightworker.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=58

    In the playground of the superpowers

    http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/II21Ag01.html

    Reply

  43. Simply adding more lanes will not help traffic. Sychronization and control of flow – to avoid turbulence – is the true help to traffic. I see no flow control in the photo. It looks like a competition without any rules at all.

    Look at the cars blocked by the cross-traffic. The road ahead is empty, but they are stopped because they are blocked. If the planners allow this traffic conflict to happen in one place, then a chain-reaction occurs, and soon the entire city is stopped.

    Moscow needs more ramps and bridges, better lane separation, and better computer software to control its traffic lights.

    Reply

  44. Comments like this only show how misinformed people are. In Moscow and Saint Petersburg they have a lot of traffic semaphores, almost every crossing points. You can notice also «СТОП» signs combined with these semaphores in case of malfunction. Between 11pm and 6am, also the traffic lights flashing in yellow (stop only if necessary and drive carefully).

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  46. you have traffic lights?- such a good site is this – one can learn a lot about United States here- you are lucky nation, americans, – we, Russians, are proud of you…

    Reply

  47. I dislike to be unfavorable – certainly not least when as professional dentist, but the story angle isn’t exactly what was like, the first para was a tad hard to understand to be honest – just what do readers think? And then again I may be 100 % drastically wrong. It is just my personal first feelings about your own posting.

    Reply

  48. I can’t stand to be negative – certainly not least since as skilled supplying living roofs london yet the type of story view is not what was expected, the second part was a little off-kilter imho – what do readers think? Then again I may be completely erroneous. It is just my own quickly thought through views regarding your current article.

    Reply

  49. I dislike to be damaging – not least as as professional offering living roofs london yet the type of story angle not exactly what I like, the last line was a little bit off-topic in my humble opinion – just what exactly do readers have to say? And then yet again I may possibly be 100 % erroneous. It is just my personal intitial feelings about your posting.

    Reply

  50. I don’t like to be bad – not least since as professional providing living roofs london so the flow and view isn’t what was was looking for, the last line was a touch off-topic in my opinion – exactly what do others think? And then yet again I might be fully drastically wrong. It is just my personal first views regarding your posting.

    Reply

  51. Hello everyone. I’m from Russia (from Moscow ) (So, I am really sorry for my not fluent English) I can say that there’s nothing to be with all our traffic jams in the downtown, as one of has said ” Moscow raods are intergreated within old architecture” The only think I suppose would help – it dercrease using private transport for useless purposes. One more thing. We have too many accidents (that cause congestions) and it happens because of careless drivers who come from the Caucasus. They simply ignore all the regulations. Just in fron of my house there is a large shopping centre and there are a lot of route taxis (if you know what I mean) There are 5 lanes and during the day time they occupy 3 of them, waithing for the passengers. The worst thing is that the police officers who are not far from tis place – simply ignores everything. Everything is paid for everything. So, I’m (as well as the other Russians) are very pessimistic about our traffic future. The authorities like speaking but not solving. when they drive anywhere – the roads in both directions are blocked.
    I’m sorry for the mistakes, but I DO hope you’ve got my idea.

    Reply

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