First they cut, then they count

Doubt is mental hygiene.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin signed City Government Resolution No. 650-PP dated November 15, 2012 “On amending the legal acts of the Moscow Government restricting the movement of freight transport in the capital.”

In short, its main goal is to limit the movement of transit freight vehicles with a permissible maximum weight of more than 12 tons on the Moscow Ring Road (MKAD) from February 1, 2013. And from May 1, 2013 - any freight transport, respectively, with the same carrying capacity.

I am convinced that this extremely ill-conceived decision of the Moscow authorities will either have to be canceled or pretend that it did not happen.

First, a little history. The other day, road workers celebrated the half-century anniversary of the Moscow ring road. What it was like immediately after the start of operation, including the intensity of traffic flow, can be seen in the film “Beware of the Car”, of course, adjusted for the creative genius of Eldar Ryazanov.

However, the country's motorization in the Soviet planned economy gradually increased, and with it the problems of developing the road network.

Experienced drivers with experience remember that not so long ago the Moscow ring road in driver folklore was called nothing less than “the road of death.” It was a narrow, unlit highway, with no separation of oncoming lanes in places. There really have been a huge number of traffic accidents on it, especially in winter.

Then, in the mid-90s, with an average oil price of 16-20 dollars per barrel, it was possible to implement such a grandiose project largely thanks to the persistence and energy of Yuri Luzhkov. Even the former mayor’s merciless critics consider the reconstruction of the 109-kilometer Moscow Ring Road to be an absolute asset of his reign. Indeed, the level of theft during the construction of the Beltway was outweighed by the public benefit received.

However, by the completion of the work it became clear that the capacity of even such a large transport artery would be quickly exhausted. And so it happened. And here's why.

Attempts to build in a federal state with a quasi-market economy a “vertical of power” with a center that draws in and concentrates all financial and commodity flows with a pump, led to a rapid overload of the transport system of Moscow and the metropolitan agglomeration.

All 18 outbound highways in Moscow from Minka to Yaroslavka are jammed to capacity at the entrances and are teetering on the brink of a transport collapse. Expensive roadway expansions don't help either.

The situation is aggravated by the fact that the Moscow ring road, originally conceived as the largest transport corridor diverting the flow of goods and road transport from Moscow, has essentially become one of the big Moscow streets.

Well, tell me, which driver, when moving from one district of Moscow to another, would not take a detour of 50-60 km, just so as not to find himself in the hopelessness of despair and the rage of fatal city traffic jams, coupled with the disgusting organization of traffic?!

The Moscow mayor realized that it was almost impossible to quickly solve the problems of the transport system of the city entrusted to him. Obviously, they decided to use the proven method of restrictions, or as it is fashionably called today, restrictions.

The upcoming elections are pushing the mayor of the capital to make such simple but wrong decisions.

Trying to solve his inner-city problems, Sergei Sobyanin, firstly, puts a “big pig” on the residents of the near Moscow region.

Secondly, such a decision will inevitably lead to an increase in all retail prices, especially for the food basket.

Thirdly, it will not work, but will lead to a monstrous increase in corruption among traffic cops and all kinds of transport inspectors.

Doubts are always mental hygiene, so let’s try to be hygienic and talk with numbers in our hands.

About 650 thousand cars pass along the Moscow Ring Road per day, the figure is recorded quite accurately, of which 130 thousand are heavy-duty. Since metering devices determine the type of transport by length and cannot distinguish, say, a truck from a bus, we can safely say that in the total flow there are about 100 thousand trucks, of which 60-70 thousand have a carrying capacity greater than the ominous 12 tons.

Russia is a party to a number of international conventions (Article 15, paragraph 4 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation) which determines the priority of international law over national law. This means that such restrictions cannot be imposed on rangefinder trucks marked with the TIR ("Transport international routier" - international road transport of goods) badge.

As a result, our domestic truckers will stand sadly in parking lots all day, which I will talk about separately. The reaction of these strong, stern men to cars with the coveted logo rushing past, no doubt, will be violent. And this, you know, is already inciting social and ethnic hatred. In general, if I were the authorities, I would be more careful with this brutal brotherhood. Listen to their intense radio exchange, they are not network hamsters living in a virtual world or thin beards from Bolotnaya. And the “mice” in their hands weigh at least 20 tons. They will throw out a cry, but no one will find it enough. And radio "Chanson" will become "Echo of Moscow".

I can assume that in order to gain international status, large Russian carriers will seriously think about moving their business to Eastern Europe, for example, to Poland. This will, in turn, lead to predictable losses for the country’s budget and tax system.

City Government Resolution No. 650-PP dated November 15, 2012 proposes to introduce a ban on transit transport on February 1, 2013 at the first stage. I wonder how you are going to “pull it out” from the heavy traffic flow? It has been verified: stopping two or three trucks near a traffic police post, as a rule, leads to a significant limitation of the highway’s capacity and paralyzes the work of traffic inspectors.

What to do with the supply of goods to the cities of the Moscow region (Balashikha, Khimki, Dolgoprudny, Mytishchi, etc.) located directly on the Moscow Ring Road? They have no alternative transport approaches.

I'm not even talking about our “capable” people. Rest assured, transport companies will issue drivers with two sets of documents: one for transit (the real one), and the other for them to get behind. And who will monitor this?

This means that all that remains is to issue passes again, and, as they say: who wouldn’t want to head this department?

But the most important thing is: where will you put thousands and thousands of trucks that will have to park somewhere and stand for 15, I emphasize, 15 (!) hours.

Where are the allocated plots of land for such parking lots, where is the infrastructure? There is no trace of this!

As a result, a large number of garbage dumps and local sites of environmental disasters will be created in nearby settlements of the Moscow region, fields and forest belts. Starting from the concentration of human waste products and ending with waste products of internal combustion engines. From exhaust gases to oil products, antifreeze, tires, etc. All this will be drained and thrown onto the land near Moscow.

You don’t have to be a deep analyst to understand: long-standing road trains scattered here and there along villages and roadsides will certainly attract the attention of criminals. So expect trouble from here too.

Everything I write about in this article will happen with doomed fatality. Read resolution No. 650 of November 15, 2012.

From May 1, just in time for the desired holidays, the movement of all heavy vehicles on the Moscow Ring Road will be prohibited. Hundreds of thousands of summer residents, stock up on dry rations. You will spend your days and nights in an absolute traffic jam, among the endless rows of rangefinders and road trains standing sullenly on the roadsides. Your favorite places for barbecue picnics will be polluted and destroyed. Well, in the fall, towards the harvest, bored and quietly furious truckers will show you their new fun - raids on gardens and vegetable plots.

I myself drive 3-4 thousand km per month, a lot of them on the Moscow Ring Road. Sometimes it seems that the Moscow ring road is built exclusively for the movement of rangefinder trucks - this is frustrating and angry.

It is, of course, necessary to solve the problem, but this requires coordinated joint work by the authorities of Moscow and the Moscow region and the Federal Government.

At the first stage, it is possible to divert traffic flows to the chord of the concrete ring. Drivers know that the main flow limiter here is not so much the width of the concrete roadway, but the absence of viaducts over railway crossings.

And this problem can be solved in a year or a year and a half together with Russian Railways. Separately, I would like to say about providing Moscow with food. The capital consumes 12 million tons per year, 33 thousand per day, of which about 4 million tons are imported by road. Simple arithmetic shows: more than 300 thousand trucks per year or about 10 thousand per day in the total transport flow is food.

I believe that there is an urgent need for the construction of two or three wholesale distribution centers (the best example is Rangis near Paris).

They would accumulate food flows during the daytime for the unique Moscow agglomeration. We would form integrated parties for large and small retail chains, cafes and restaurants, and “inject” them into the retail network at night. Calculations show that only by optimizing the costs of logistics and transshipment it is possible to reduce the expenses of each resident on the food basket by 15-20%.

There is no doubt: the most complex transport issue can be radically solved only by building the central ring road (CRR). Such a project was the main one in Sergei Shoigu’s investment portfolio, and I hope it will remain key in the plans of the new administration.

And for this it will be necessary to make a large-scale budgetary breakthrough and reach the previously announced by Sergei Shoigu milestone of 1 trillion rubles in the revenue base. The task is difficult, but doable.

The implementation of such a project will create a new belt of economic activity in the region and will make it possible to intercept and divert heavy transport from Moscow and the Moscow Ring Road.

The implementation of such a project is beneficial for Moscow and the Moscow region, and for the country as a whole.

There is no reason to continue to hope for GDP growth due to high oil prices. This engine, which has been pushing the economy forward for the last 10 years, has jammed. Infrastructure needs to be thoroughly addressed.

Transport arteries are the circulatory system of the national economy. It’s bad when, given the anemic nature of our current economic growth, it is also suppressed by ill-considered administrative decisions.

All my attempts to call and reach the vice-mayor of Moscow Maxim Liksutov led nowhere. I was told to write what worries me. So I wrote it.

The intellectual fanaticism of these commercial appointees in Brioni, although outwardly quite pleasant people, is aggravated by a feeling of complete impunity. Of course, such decisions devalue the entire system of state power. But only Mayor Sobyanin faces direct elections. You should be more careful, more careful, Mr. Sobyanin, otherwise they will bring you to the tsugunder.