Life in exchange for speed

Moscow authorities are dismantling dividing barriers on most departure routes. This was reported by... O. Head of the capital's construction department Andrey Bochkarev. In place of the barriers separating the lanes, he said, reverse lanes should appear, which will expand the departure routes and improve traffic.

It became known back in January that the fenders would be demolished on the Kashirskoye and Varshavskoye highways. Now it is planned that the fences will be removed on most other highways - first of all, on the Yaroslavl highway.

Motorists received the news ambiguously - they fear that without bump stops, cars will fly into oncoming traffic more often. “Listen, this can’t be true about dismantling the dividers? In terms of mortality, the effect will be the same as a small war, hundreds of lives,” writes municipal deputy Maxim Kats on Twitter .

PublicPost spoke with experts about what would actually happen if bump stops were removed from the capital's highways, and what prompted city officials to undertake such a risky experiment.

Vyacheslav Lysakov, Chairman of the Coordination Council of the interregional public organization of motorists "Freedom of Choice", State Duma deputy from United Russia:

“This decision is the right one. Moreover, it is necessary to remove not only the bumpers, but also the reserve lanes along which a huge number of cars with flashing lights drive. Such lanes are dangerous even for the personnel of the road patrol service. We have such lanes on Leninsky Prospekt, on Kutuzovsky... These reserve lanes need to be closed and turned into reversible lanes. This will be justified, especially in the mornings, when most of the cars travel from the region to the center.

Of course, first you need to conduct an experiment, look, calculate. Plus conduct a comprehensive analysis. If any increase in the number of victims is noticed, the experiment should be considered a failure. Still, the main priority for the state is safety, not improving traffic. Everyone should have the right to life, and we must ensure it."

Petr Shkumatov, Blue Buckets coordinator:

“There is an official reason - the Moscow authorities want to increase the capacity of the roads in this way. The unofficial reason is this - in those places where reverse lanes are organized, you can often observe the following situation: the lane is lit red for both directions and our “friends” are driving along this lane.” in cars with flashing lights. So it may very well be that this initiative is not aimed at allowing ordinary people to drive faster, but at ensuring that officials have the opportunity to drive along the green corridor to their country residences. That is, there will be such a lane. , like on Kutuzovsky Prospekt, but everywhere. All this will end with numerous corpses. The mortality rate will increase sharply.

Metal bump stops installed in places where people can speed up reduce mortality by almost half. Global long-term statistics confirm this. The most serious injuries that occur on the highway are in oncoming collisions.

Of course, they will tell us: “Guys, what should we do, there are traffic jams all day long.” And the night? At night the roads are clear, and at night people drive around. And when a person, having accelerated, loses control, then instead of meeting the bump stop, he will meet another car. I consider this initiative a crime against the residents of Moscow. Such decisions, voiced at the highest level, completely contradict the concept of security accepted throughout the world."

Sergey Kanaev, director of the National Center for Traffic Safety:

“Safety on these sections of roads will definitely decrease. Only the lazy don’t talk about this. All experts who are more or less familiar with physical dividers, those who have studied road traffic, understand that if you remove the bumpers, especially on highways where the speed limit is more than 80 km/h, then the risk of accidents with serious injuries increases by 10% or more - this is the minimum figure. In those places where physical dividers were replaced with reversible lanes, there is such a statistic that traffic safety decreased by 25%.

- But there must be some reason for making such a decision?

I think that the main reason is the very low traffic and highway capacity. Security in this case for the authorities, I think, is secondary. Traffic comes first.

- So this is a conscious sacrifice of human lives?

Such sacrifice is absolutely ineffective and unclaimed. Ask any car owner: is he ready to become such a victim?”