Maxim Liksutov reported on the effect of the launch of new diameters, which reduced traffic jams in Moscow

The average daily number of cars on the streets of Moscow has decreased by 6% since the beginning of the year, and the total duration of 8-10 point traffic jams has halved. Such data was presented on Monday, September 25. O. Deputy Mayor of Moscow Maxim Liksutov. This is the effect, in particular, of the recent launch of new diameters MCD-3 and MCD-4. Traffic, experts explained, has decreased mainly due to visitors from the region, who previously spent hours stuck in traffic jams on the approaches to Moscow due to road repairs. Now many of them prefer the MCD, but the vehicles they leave at the diameter stations urgently need interceptor parking.

According to data on Monday made public Maxim Liksutov, the number of cars driving onto the city streets every day has decreased by 6% since the beginning of the year. Now about 2.9 million cars are registered in the city every day, by the New Year holidays the figure could rise to 3 million. At the same time, Mr. Liksutov said, the number of registered vehicles in Moscow and the region is growing (according to the traffic police, as of January 1, in total there were 8.5 million vehicles are registered; more recent information is not available in open sources and has not been announced).

But motorists, the official says, are increasingly “choosing urban transport because it’s cheaper and faster”—this, he says, is the main reason for the decline in traffic in Moscow.

Passenger traffic in transport is growing, and its system is constantly expanding and supplemented. In March of this year, we remind you that earned the entire Big Circle metro line (previously only certain sections of it were accessible); in August, traffic on MCD-3 (Zelenograd-Ramenskoye), in September – MCD-4 (Aprelevka—Zheleznodorozhny). More than 2 million people have used the latest diameter alone since its opening. In September, new roads were also opened – the eastern and southern sections of the Moscow High-Speed ​​Diameter, the toll Bagration Avenue, which relieved the congestion of Varshavskoe Highway, Kutuzovsky Avenue, the North-Western Expressway, the Moscow Ring Road and other roads.

As a result, the Department of Transport said, over eight months, the total duration of 8-10 traffic jams in hours in Moscow was halved (to 43.9 hours, Yandex data) compared to the same period in 2022. The Department of Transport’s presentation provides examples of days with the worst congestion this year – including the day of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Moscow on March 20 and the day of the Victory Parade rehearsal on April 27.

The effect of the opening of new roads and diameters is not yet complete, says Alexander Shumsky, head of the Probok.net expert center: new transport habits of drivers will take two to four months to form.

Other factors are unlikely to have influenced the behavior of drivers, the expert notes: fuel has risen in price by 2-3 rubles over the year, for Muscovites this is not a reason to give up their cars. Many motorists, with the opening of diameters, decided not to use their personal cars anymore, confirms the coordinator of the Blue Buckets movement, Petr Shkumatov: this is due to the very difficult situation on the roads in those directions where there is now an MCD. For example, on the Leningradskoye Highway the bridge in Khimki is being overhauled (traffic jams stretch for several kilometers), in the southeast and east the overloaded Yegoryevskoye and Nosovikhinskoye highways are congested, in Lyubertsy the reconstruction of Oktyabrsky Avenue is underway. Now many residents of the Moscow region abandon their cars en masse at MCD stations (Skhodnya, Firsanovskaya, etc.), which, in turn, creates inconvenience for local residents, says Mr. Shkumatov: in his opinion, there is an urgent need to create intercepting stations there parking similar to those at metro stations in Moscow.

Let us remind you that the city authorities plan to build another diameter in the future – MCD-5 Pushkino-Domodedovo. It requires an underground tunnel between Yaroslavsky and Paveletsky railway stations with a length of 10 to 13 km. Maxim Liksutov, answering a question from Kommersant about the fate of the tunnel, said that at the moment Russian Railways and the Moscow government, as part of a joint working group, are working on the “technical aspects of the project,” the “basic parameters” of which will be determined by the end of the year. “The project is quite expensive and very complex,” said Mr. Liksutov.

“Different route options are being calculated, as well as engineering features of construction, while the final route of the tunnel in the center of the capital and the timing of the launch of the diameter have not yet been determined,” said the press service of the capital’s construction complex, responding to a request from Kommersant.

Maxim Liksutov also announced details of a new program for the development of railway communications with distant suburbs and neighboring regions.

As Kommersant already told, we are talking about plans to increase the number of electric trains traveling to Moscow from Tula, Vladimir, Yaroslavl, Kaluga and other cities. Now they run at intervals of up to 180 minutes; the Moscow City Hall, the Ministry of Transport and Russian Railways want to reduce this to 20–30 minutes. The new trains will only reach the terminal stations (hubs) of the MCD, where passengers will transfer to the diameters. Previously, the draft program was conceptually approved by President Vladimir Putin; Mr. Liksutov said today that the document awaits approval by the Russian government. There has been no decision on tariffs for “extended” diameters yet; the technical part of the project is currently being discussed, which trains will run and on what schedule, the acting chief said. O. vice mayor.

Ivan Buranov