Traffic online

Internet companies can help improve the situation on Moscow roads

To defeat traffic jams, Moscow, in addition to developing the transport network, also requires a radical change in the organization of traffic. To do this, it is necessary to accurately identify bottlenecks on city streets and develop adequate solutions. Special Internet services that monitor the transport situation can help with this.

All major Russian Internet portals now have traffic jam online services: Yandex, Mail.Ru and Rambler. With their help, you can receive not only operational information about the situation on Moscow streets, but also conduct a more in-depth analysis.

Thus, according to Mail.Ru, the average speed of travel by car in Moscow is 50 km/h. The heaviest day for the capital in 2009 was February 3, when this figure dropped to 26 km/h. The “slowest” streets in Moscow are Ordynsky Deadlock - 2.0625 km/h, Ozerkovsky Lane - 2.375 km/h, Julius Fuchik Street - 3.084 km/h.

Yandex also keeps road statistics. According to his research, in the summer of 2008, the busiest were the Third Transport Ring from Kutuzovsky Prospekt to Shmitovsky Proezd, Suschevsky Val from the Savelovskaya overpass to Sheremetyevskaya Street, and the Moscow Ring Road from Novorizhskoye to Volokolamsk Highway.

The fastest, according to Mail.Ru, should be considered Rastorguevskoe highway (70.8019 km/h), Novotushinskaya street (73.6624 km/h), MKAD from 48 to 52 km (73.9964 km/h ).

According to the head of the Maps@Mail.Ru project, Roman Kozlov, the statistics collected by the company make it possible to understand what needs to be done in order for Moscow to stop “standing still.” Namely: it is necessary to reconsider the basic principles of road construction in the capital.

Often the causes of traffic jams are so-called bottlenecks: exits and junctions of highways and main routes. “Very often - either architecturally or for reasons of economy - exits are made without taking into account the real road load, i.e. too narrow. A good example is the exit to Mira Avenue from the Third Ring Road towards the region. The solution was as follows: The exit will not go directly to Mira Avenue, but to a street parallel to it,” says Mr. Kozlov.

Another “bottleneck” on the map of Moscow are bridges over rivers and crossings over railways. There is practically no construction of alternative routes to bypass these places in the capital.

The second cause of traffic congestion is hotspots. “Any shopping center, metro station and other points of attraction cause a decrease in road capacity by approximately 1.4 times. At the same time, no one is widening the road by 1.5-2 times. Moreover, if this is done, then it must be done right up to the nearest congress," says Roman Kozlov.

Poorly adjusted traffic lights also contribute to the situation on the roads. Often the interval between green and red signals does not take into account the capacity of the next section of the road. Although, according to Roman Kozlov, the problem is now recognized. The traffic police began manually adjusting traffic lights to give drivers time to leave the intersection.

Illegally parked cars also create significant problems. Moreover, according to employees of the Mail.Ru company, very often the “Parking is prohibited” sign is placed where cars would not interfere with traffic. But these signs are often missing where they should actually be placed. “In addition, when building houses, they completely do not take into account the fact that in the city the number of cars per each resident has now increased, and this must be taken into account not only when creating parking lots, but also when planning entries and exits in residential areas,” adds Mr. - Mr. Kozlov.

Mail.Ru and Yandex are ready to share accumulated information with city authorities. “Currently we do not interact with Moscow urban planners, but we are always open to cooperation,” says the Yandex project manager. Traffic jams" Roman Borisenko.

Mail.Ru employees did not wait for the attention of Moscow officials and tried to establish contact with them themselves, but were ignored. For some reason, Moscow city planners were not interested in reliable information about city traffic.

Mikhail Blinkin, a well-known expert in the field of traffic management, told our correspondent: “I am very pleased that private companies, such as Mail.Ru, have begun to pay attention to the traffic situation in Moscow. After all, in the West it is commercial enterprises - - automakers, distributors, IT companies - influenced changes in the organization of urban transport systems."





Prepared jointly with iToday.ru

Olga FEDINA, iToday.ru, - specially for Vremya Novostei