Moscow roads
Moscow roads network can often be confusing. See, the traffic in our city is organized not like, say, in New York. Instead of having many intersections within the city, we rather have several large ring roads that encircle it.
On the one hand there are several advantages - for example, it's easier to get from one end of Moscow to another, because you don't have to pass through the entire city.
On the other hand, such traffic system has multiple disadvantages which cause those terrible Moscow traffic jams we all hate. Let's talk about it in more details.
The first principle of Moscow roads network is that it has a ring-like structure. This principle goes back for centuries, because Moscow was built from the center, spreading more and more "layers" to the outside.
Historically it was very convenient, because back then the cities weren't really "planned", but rather built and constantly expanded. Plus, it was very convenient do defend them this way. However, as things progressed – this structure began seriously constraining Moscow's growth.
Take New-York, for example. When you look at the map, you’ll immediately notice that the city was well planned. In fact, it’s an incarnation of “begin with the end in mind” principle. There are lots of straight lines, loads of intersections – in short, the city architects “did their homework.”
However, things are much worse when it comes to Moscow, mainly because Moscow roads have been laid out way before there was anything running on internal combustion!
MKAD - what goes around - comes around ...
(by Dmitrip)
In the times of Soviet Union, the choice was simple. You could either tear the place down – or rebuild it from scratch, which was not the option. The second choice was to just use what you’ve got. Since traffic wasn’t really a big problem back then, it was decided that Moscow roads infrastructure will simply be “upgraded”.
And so, there was MKAD – the "Moscow Ring Road"...
Imagine a huge beltway running around the city, connected to every major traffic artery. Thousands and thousands of cars pass there every hour, looking to enter or leave – and it just never stops.
As I said, this is very convenient when you wish to travel large distance. Instead of going through the city center and risking getting stuck in Moscow traffic, you just hop on the highway and drive nice and easy to wherever you need. However, I should have said “it WAS very convenient”.
First of all, MKAD obviously can’t handle the load anymore. What was perfectly fine in Soviet times doesn’t quite work anymore, because the amount of cars in the city simply skyrocketed! No matter how many lanes you add – this isn’t going to change the “big picture”.
In addition, there’s large amount of shopping malls and other public places connected to MKAD. See, megastores like IKEA couldn’t enter Moscow itself because frankly – there isn’t much space left inside. Instead, they were asked to build their facilities outside of the city, while Moscow government connected them to the ring road.
The problem is there are just too many of them these days – and not all have a proper connection to MKAD. If you take IKEA or any other large store like “Mega” – they’ve got everything set up pretty well.
However, lots of places don’t bother to build the connecting roads long enough to accumulate the potential queue – and they end up clogging the main artery. Needless to say, they cause a huge amount of traffic jams, especially on weekends.
To solve that problem, Moscow government has built the “3rd transport ring” around Moscow, that lies between the MKAD and “Sadovoye kolco” – sort of an inner “ring road”. Although it did help to lower the burden – the traffic jams are still there.
These days they built the additional “4th transport ring” around the city, but I think it’s not going to help either because the whole idea of organizing the traffic in circles simply sucks.
Another busy day of the Third Ring Road
(by Vokabre)
You see, you can’t travel exactly through Moscow. At some point you will have to use one of Moscow’s ring roads to get to the other side, because in the center there’s Kremlin, and you can’t really drive through the place. Just look how many such “rings” we have already:
- Bulvarnoe Kolco – probably the oldest one, this is just a bunch of inner city roads connected together.
- Sadovoye Kolco – the main driveway of Moscow center, using which you can get nearly to all Moscow sights.
- The 3rd Transport Ring – the one we spoke about, lies between MKAD and the city center
- The 4th Transport Ring – being built currently, and will probably lie between the 3rd ring and MKAD.
- Finally, we have MKAD itself, that is the “last line of defence”. Beside it, lies the Moscow region (except the neighborhood of Butovo which is sort of Moscow enclave beyond the usual city limits)
Needless to say, all these Moscow roads failed to solve the problem. Sure, there’s always a place for “complete redesign”, but we’ll have to wait for World War 3 at least.
However, I firmly believe that instead of building more and more traffic rings, Moscow government should focus on connecting the inner city roads in a way that will help people get to their destination in the most straightforward way possible.
I read many articles dedicated to the issue, and there are many specialists claiming that Moscow traffic problem can be solved by removing this ring-like “circulation” of traffic. Despite everything, these are just my ideas, and they probably won’t be of interest to anybody, BUT!
If we can’t fix it – we should at least know how it works. So again, if you want to go somewhere distant – use the MKAD or the 3rd Ring, because they are your best chance to get there on time. Try to avoid driving through the city center, especially through the very city center as you will get lost in all those tiny one way streets.
As a rule of thumb, try not to go beyond “Sadovoye Kolco” because Moscow roads located within are very confusing. Sure, if your Russian friends are going with you – fine, but don’t go there alone – or at least get yourself a decent Moscow map.
Remember – you can't drive straight through the city, sooner or later you’ll have to get on some of those rings.
…unless, of course, you are Barak Obama 
Related posts:
- How to avoid Moscow traffic jams
- Moscow driving - some tips regarding driving in Moscow!
- GIBDD - the Moscow Road Police Force
- Moscow traffic jams - how to deal with traffic in Moscow.
- Moscow transport
- Moscow traffic survival guide
