It was decided to break with speed limits – Newspaper Kommersant No. 211 (7412) dated 11/15/2022

The Ministry of Transport of Russia is preparing guidelines for regulating the speed limit on the roads for regional authorities. The document, in particular, will make it possible to get rid of “torn” regimes with a chaotic installation of prohibition signs that provoke drivers to violate fines. The recommendations, according to Kommersant, are planned to be made public within six months, and the State traffic inspectorate has already been involved in their development.

Vladimir Lugovenko, Deputy Director of State Policy in the Field of Automobile and Urban Passenger Transport of the Ministry of Transport of Russia, announced the development of guidelines for regional authorities on speed control on roads during the Road Traffic Russia congress. It should be noted that the authorities of the subjects set limits on regional highways, Rosavtodor – on federal ones, Avtodor – on paid ones. “It will be a very resonant document, but we are not broadcasting it yet,” Mr. Lugovenko said. If such recommendations are accepted, designers and road builders will need to use them.” The work, according to Kommersant, is planned to be completed within six months, traffic police specialists are involved in this.

As part of these recommendations, the Ministry of Transport intends to eliminate the practice that drivers call “jagged” speed limits on highways. We are talking about situations where signs rapidly follow each other in a short section, changing the speed limit. For example, at the entrances to settlements or within their boundaries. At the same time, the characteristics of the route (bandwidth, carriageway width, etc.) do not change.

The rules for the use of road signs (including speed limit signs) are established primarily in the traffic rules: the standard limit for passenger cars in the city is 60 km/h, on country roads – 90 km/h, on highways – 110 km/h. Additional requirements are specified in GOST 2019. It says, for example, that before sharp turns and repair zones, a stepped speed limit should be introduced in increments of no more than 20 km / h by installing signs every 50–150 m.

The problem of “torn” speed regimes has long been recognized by the authorities. The Ministry of Transport and the traffic police even called several times to revise road signs, but so far everything has been limited to this. Regions pursue an independent policy in the field of speed limiting. The city authorities, for example, in April 2020, on a number of sections of the Kaluga highway, they were allowed to drive 80 km / h (there was a variable regime of 60–90 km / h before), in July 2022 they increased the permissible speed from 60 to 70 km / h by Kosinsky overpass.

“Today there is no document with general approaches for choosing speed modes, I see a serious legal gap in this,” says Andrey Mukhortikov, senior lecturer in the course of organization and traffic safety at the Higher School of Urban Studies. “The recommendations should include general framework principles for choosing speed, which should depend on the width of the carriageway, the presence or absence of a fence, off-street pedestrian crossings and their types, sidewalks, unregulated left-hand turns. According to the current rules, Victor Shchulepnikov, head of the traffic safety department of the Moscow Region Ministry of Transport, explained to Kommersant that the installation of signs should be justified. “This is the decision of the municipal commissions on traffic safety or the owner of the road, taken on the basis of an analysis of accidents or traffic monitoring,” says Mr. Shchulepnikov. “However, these justifications are not regulated in any way and can be challenged by supervisory authorities.”

“Ragged modes are a big problem for Russian roads,” notes Blue Buckets traffic coordinator Petr Shkumatov. “Perhaps the most typical situation is when there is a crossing on a country road, a 70 km/h sign and a camera. Another oddity is common on federal roads: a four-lane road, smooth asphalt, lighting, and a restriction with a camera. Because of such areas, drivers are constantly in suspense, this causes unnecessary fatigue. It is often not clear why such restrictions are introduced – in 90% they are absolutely illogical.

Ivan Buranov