On Traffic and Parking in МоскваSeptember 18 2011

Many years ago when we were in Rome I used to think the traffic there was the worst I’d ever experienced. The streets were very narrow and cars drove very fast – pedestrians didn’t seem to have a chance.

In the 90’s when we when lived outside of Taipei for a little while my opinion changed. It wasn’t that cars drove fast - they couldn’t because the traffic was always a mess. No one seemed to pay much attention to rules like keeping to the right or not getting stuck in an intersection after the light changed. In fact, the only “rule” seemed to be: Whoever got there first would fill up any available space. It didn’t seemed to matter whether you were on the right or left side of the street. Sidewalks were mostly impassable for pedestrians since they are used as parking lots for motor scooters of which there are thousands - millions. At the time I think I remember hearing there were about 6 million motor scooters on the road on an island with a population of about 21 million. If you were walking you had to walk in the street because the sidewalks were always clogged with scooters.

Now that I we’re living in Москва I’ve changed my mind again. During rush hour, which seems to be most of the day, except for Sundays, streets are literally gridlocked. You can stand on the sidewalks and watch lights turn green and then red and then green again without a single car moving, making a turn or anything else. While left turns are not outlawed no one makes one because of the gridlock.

Parking along the street in Москва is interesting also. You can walk along the sidewalks but it often means weaving between parked cars. Parallel parking along the street does occur however among the cars parallel-parked you’ll see the nose or tail of a car wedged in at angles. Many times one or two wheels are bumped up over the curb either diagonally or perpendicularly to the curb. In some spots the entire car is parked up on the sidewalk even in parks and on what in the US would be called safety zones where two streets intersect. On my site (http://www.andrewmcdonoughphotography.com/russia.htm) is a brief 5 frame slideshow showing some the parking options you have here in Москва. The file is called: parking.exe. The parking rule here seems to be “If there’s a space between cars, fill it anyway that you can – no problem.” If you live in a city like New York within an hour your windshield would be filled with so many tickets you couldn’t see through it or worse, your car would be towed to a pier along the Hudson River tickets flapping in the breeze. Not so in Москва.

I’ve been told by several people that the police can write parking tickets but they probably won’t. If they write a ticket and the recipient knows someone in the police department or government they’re afraid of being reamed out by their superiors or worse, fired.

Crossing a street in Москва can be a challenge too. At intersections and every so often along the streets are striped areas that in the US are called “safety zones” If you’re on foot and crossing in one, in theory, cars, buses or trucks are supposed to stop for you while you’re crossing. The trouble is only about 2 in 5 drivers observe this rule and speed by, if there’s no gridloack. If you cross the street elsewhere, as I’m used to doing in New York – you’re fair game – let the walker beware! Sometimes this is not a problem. If the street is in total gridlock (see above) it really doesn’t matter – just wind your way between the car bumpers and you’ll get to the other side.

Street lights take a bit getting used to here. They look the same as those in the US – red on top, orange in the middle, green below. There are also walk, don’t walk signs usually at intersections. It’s their blinking pattern you have to get used to. In New York after a few seconds of constant green there will be 10 blinks of the walk sign before the orange and then red light changes. In other cities you get 12 or 15 blinks. In Москва it’s different. After the green light is on for a few seconds the walk sign blinks twice – just 2 times – after that you’re fair game.

I’ve been paying special attention to these rules and behaviors because this coming Tuesday I’ll be driving the car we bought about 5 weeks ago (more on buying a car and getting a Russian driver’s license in a future post) from the US Embassy. I’m trying to figure out a route from the Embassy to our apartment compound that doesn’t require left turns. I’ll be picking the car up at 18:30 – rush hour – wish me luck…

Andy