On the Brink of Collapse
Moscow's Tangled Traffic
Viktorija Bitjukova, Ekaterina Sokolova
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
Moscow is choking on its own traffic. The rapid increase in the number of cars in the city has led to the complete overuse of roads. The consequence is extremely high air pollution. On top of that, there is the noise and contamination of the soil with heavy metals. The situation is being exacerbated by hyper-centralisation and an unfavourable road network. The arterial roads that radiate from the centre in the form of a star are connected by a few rings. This creates long distances, especially where rails or indus-trial areas stand in the way. But instead of strengthening the local public transport, the city is building more and more roads, which are just as quickly packed with even more autos. Traffic planners have not even turned their back on the ring system.
(Osteuropa 4-5/2008, pp. 351–358)