| Yuri Luzhkov is going to fine traffic police officers for traffic jams Moscow authorities have finally found those responsible for all the transport problems of the capital's metropolis. To our great surprise, this time it was not motorists who were recognized as extreme, but traffic police officers. At yesterday's meeting of the capital's government, Yuri Luzhkov proposed holding accountable those employees of the striped baton and radar who are unable to ensure uninterrupted traffic flow on the streets of Moscow.
The reason for such a radical change in the course of the mayor's office was the discussion of the next project to create an automated network traffic control system in the city. Until now, all such programs in Moscow ended with the allocated budget money, after which the developers presented to the mayor a new, even more expensive project, supposedly involving the use of even higher technologies. It was the same this time. Having barely taken the Start automated traffic control system, which recently turned twenty years old, beyond the Garden Ring, the head of the Department of Transport and Communications of the City Hall, Leonid Lipsits, presented a project to create an “Integrated Intelligent Transport System” in the city. In his report, he explained that the project involves equipping not only transport junctions, but even parking spaces with special sensors. Detectors connected to the head computer via a GSM radio channel will make it possible to control traffic flow not only on each highway, but also on the streets adjacent to it, which will automatically ensure optimal traffic conditions, Mr. Lipsitz assured. According to him, the installation of such a system on Dmitrovskoye Highway immediately increased the highway's throughput by 20%. After providing a lot of technical details, the head of the transport department admitted that there were disagreements among officials regarding the project. In particular, the city department of informatization has not determined either the timing of the program or the amount of funding, although the economic policy department seems to have agreed to allocate 2 billion rubles for the program. until 2008.
Having heard that the program had neither deadlines nor money, Yuri Luzhkov began to leaf through the document presented to him by his subordinates and discovered that it contained only methodological recommendations for the reconstruction of traffic light facilities. “I’m sorry, but other than talk about repairing traffic lights, I haven’t heard any measures that would really help organize traffic,” the mayor said menacingly. “Your terminology is so beautiful. Well, who would refuse automated traffic management? And now let’s push all sorts of tinsel under this term!” - the mayor attacked the developers. Noting that the Department of Transport should not “catch pie in the sky”, but find solutions to simple issues related to traffic management, the mayor was the first to set an example. “How much we argued about how to show the driver where he should go at these complex junctions that we made on the Third Transport Ring! Still no answer. There are some old norms that have become decrepit to the point of complete disgrace. We suggested a simple thing: I drive up to the roundabout, I need to turn left. We suggest, let's write: “Third ring - to the left.” No, we must write: “Third Ring - Shmitovsky Proezd.” And the driver slows down and begins to figure out where this Shmitovsky passage is. And along with it, the speed of the entire flow slows down. Here is “automation” that does not require billions of dollars in costs, but requires simple logic!” - said the mayor, mentioning for good measure Gogol’s famous remark about the main Russian troubles. Mr. Luzhkov completely agreed with Nikolai Vasilyevich’s statement.
The officials did not understand the hint and, as if on purpose, began to prove that Messrs. Gogol and Luzhkov are absolutely right. The head of the City Hall Traffic Organization Center, Sergei Popov, who took the podium, apparently, even after criticizing the mayor, did not give up the hope of receiving new money to fight traffic jams. He stated that the center is ready to become the balance holder and customer of the entire program, especially since his subordinates are already working on the implementation of an automated transport management system on the Third Transport Ring. Here Yuri Luzhkov could no longer stand it. “What other automated control? There is not a single traffic light on the third ring! What are you going to manage there?” - the mayor became furious, under whose hot hand the head of the capital’s traffic police, Sergei Kazantsev, immediately fell.
The capital's chief traffic inspector made it clear that the traffic police are not enthusiastic about the prospect of creating an automated system in the city that can ensure uninterrupted traffic flow without any participation of police officers . “Such a system will be effective only in combination with other measures,” said Mr. Kazantsev, once again calling for increasing fines for violating traffic rules and limiting the entry of vehicles into the Third Transport Ring. “Yes, these are unpopular measures, but they have an effect! Today in the center there are cars with one driver! I think this is wrong! The driver should enter the center only if he needs to go there,” said the general, without specifying who exactly will decide which drivers need to go into the center and which don’t.
Having seen how Sergei Kazantsev, habitually replacing the fight against traffic jams with the fight against drivers, distorted the very idea of a network system for managing traffic flows, Yuri Luzhkov recalled everything to the capital’s traffic cops at once. “How is the work of your departments assessed?” the mayor addressed the head of the traffic police and answered himself: “It should be assessed by how a higher average speed is ensured.” Noting that today the appearance of a traffic controller at an intersection rather impedes the normal flow of traffic, the mayor demanded “to develop measures that the traffic police should take in relation to those workers who slow down traffic,” as well as to adopt standards for the time a traffic inspector appears at the scene of an accident. “I’m asking you, what else do you need to help you with, what resources, so that we can say that our traffic police are working satisfactorily? Well, everything, right down to airships and helicopters, everything has been issued, but the work does not change. What other equipment do you need to immediately record an accident, remove damaged cars and ensure continuity of traffic? Well, there’s nothing like that. And so all informatization is covered with a copper basin. It’s all for nothing, and that’s money!” - Mr. Luzhkov scolded the head of the capital's traffic police. In conclusion, the mayor warned that if Mr. Kazantsev does not increase the responsibility of his workers for organizing the movement and does not force them to work properly, then he “will not have any personal prospects.” Alexander GUDKOV |
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