Dead traffic season has begun

Heavy rains almost paralyzed traffic in Moscow

Autumn, which has finally come into its own in Moscow, presented the townspeople with not the most pleasant surprise. On Tuesday, due to heavy rains that continued throughout the first half of the day, the capital's transport system, which already left much to be desired, failed. The situation on the streets of Moscow was such that the total length of traffic jams sometimes reached five hundred kilometers. “Many kilometers of traffic jams were observed on the Moscow Ring Road. The main highways were worse than usual, but the situation in the city center as a whole was no different from usual,” said an information collection specialist at the Yandex analytical center in an interview with Vremya Novostey. Traffic jams" Alexey Lepeshkin. The situation on the Moscow Ring Road really could not be called deplorable. For example, the internal section of the Moscow Ring Road from Volokolamskoye to Kashirskoye Shosse was completely stopped, and traffic on both sides of the Ring Road from Novorizhskoye to Leningradskoye Shosse was paralyzed.

At half past ten in the morning, RIA Novosti reported that due to a multi-kilometer traffic jam on the Volokolamsk highway, hundreds of drivers were forced to leave their cars and walk along the road in the company of public transport passengers - the road collapse equalized all categories of citizens.

A traffic jam has formed on the Third Transport Ring from the exit towards the Southern Port to the interchange with Sevastopolsky Avenue. Many of the city’s transport arteries were clogged to capacity: Leningradskoye and Kashirskoye highways, Volgogradsky and Ryazansky avenues, Andropov Avenue and Profsoyuznaya Street. In total, as calculated by specialists from the Yandex. Traffic jams,” traffic was difficult on 470 Moscow streets.

According to Alexey Lepeshkin, we must “thank” the sharply worsened weather for the situation that developed on the capital’s roads yesterday morning. “The second reason that caused a sharp increase in the number of cars on the city streets is the return of Muscovites from vacation and the beginning of the school year: citizens are beginning to actively transport their children to schools and kindergartens,” our interlocutor noted. -- This factor was predictable, but the continuous morning rain made its own adjustments. The situation was complicated by numerous minor accidents, primarily on the Moscow Ring Road, which caused additional congestion.”

The bad weather made not only drivers and passengers sunbathing in traffic jams nervous, but also those who decided to get to Moscow by train. Due to the accident on the Riga direction, trains ran at increased intervals, and stood at stations for half an hour. As representatives of the Moscow Railway later explained, delays in the schedule were caused by technical malfunctions in the freight train running from Pavshino station to Tushino.

Experts fear that if the rains do not stop, then yesterday's situation may well be repeated during the morning and evening rush hours, when citizens go to work or return home. The only thing you shouldn't be afraid of is a flood. “We cleared out clogged storm drains in the city in advance, so we have not yet received any reports of flooding,” said employees of the capital’s Department of Housing and Communal Services.

Mikhail MOSHKIN