Prohibitions will be added to road signs – Newspaper Kommersant No. 171 (7372) of 09/16/2022

Rosavtodor intends to change the rules for the use of road signs, markings, fences and traffic lights, spending more than 18 million rubles. for the development of a new standard, mandatory for the use of road services. The agency, judging by the available materials, is going to introduce “advanced, progressive and resource-saving” technologies. It is also possible that new instruments will appear to impose restrictions on the movement of cars and pedestrians. Experts interviewed by Kommersant talk about large-scale contradictions between the updated standard and traffic rules, which need to be corrected at the same time.

The Federal Road Agency is holding a tender for 18.3 million rubles. according to the update of GOST 52289-2019 “Technical means of organizing traffic. Rules for the use of road signs, markings, traffic lights, road barriers and guides. This standard is mandatory for the use of traffic organizers and road services (this is enshrined in the order of the government of the Russian Federation). The traffic police also focuses on the norms of GOST during inspections.

The latest edition of the standard, as Kommersant reported, came into force on April 1, 2020. At that time, waffle iron markings, signs for marking places for charging electric vehicles, blue markings for paid parking zones, and much more were introduced into practice. Immediately after that, the Ministry of Transport, its subordinate institute RosdorNII and Rosavtodor began to receive proposals to improve GOST, Kommersant was told at the Federal Highway Agency. They mainly concerned the optimization of the use of signs, the installation of fences, the clarification of the rules for the use of markings and the conditions for installing traffic lights. When asked by Kommersant which of these proposals could be included in the updated standard, the department replied: the decision will be made by the winner of the announced tender and the relevant technical committee of Rosstandart. The TOR for the tender refers to plans to introduce “advanced and progressive approaches to traffic management” that should improve traffic safety and road capacity. We are talking about various resource- and energy-saving technologies. Mention was also made of the “needs” of large cities “in organizational and restrictive measures for the movement of vehicles and pedestrians”, the introduction of which with the help of existing signs and markings is impossible, but what exactly is being discussed is not clear. The terms of reference say that RosdorNII was contacted, among other things, by the Moscow authorities.

The experts interviewed by Kommersant generally supported the idea of ​​​​Rosavtodor to update the standard. Other standards governing the use of signs, markings and traffic lights need to be changed, says Andrey Mukhortikov, a member of the public council at the Moscow Region Ministry of Transport. “A number of road conditions require separate signs,” he says. “For example, there is a road that first has an asphalt surface, and then an unpaved one: the driver must be warned about this, but there is no sign for this, it can be borrowed from the traffic rules of Belarus.” As another example, the expert cites complex intersections where there are not enough arrows in the markings that indicate the direction of movement “left” and “right”, and not just right, left and straight. “It is necessary, of course, to adjust the standards in conjunction with the traffic rules, which also need to be changed for a long time,” Mr. Mukhortikov emphasizes.

There are many contradictions between GOST and traffic rules, but it is the rules that need to be changed, says Dmitry Popov, specialist of the St. Petersburg Traffic Management Directorate (DODD). “For example, the standard describes one marking for diagonal pedestrian crossings, and the rules are completely different,” he explains. “There is a blue marking for marking paid parking spaces in the standard, but not in the traffic rules.” Or, the expert says, take the “No Stopping” sign: according to GOST, its coverage area should be terminated after the installation of the “Parking” sign, but there is no such clarification in the traffic rules. As a result, the traffic police evacuates the cars of drivers who left the cars in parking pockets.

Previously, St. Petersburg sent ideas to RosdorNII on organizing single-phase regulation at intersections, when a car turns right at the same time as a pedestrian who is crossing the road at that moment. Now it is allowed only at small intersections with low traffic intensity. St. Petersburg wants to lift the restriction, but RosdorNII opposes (“Kommersant” talked about this in December 2021). Dmitry Popov says that DODD still insists on changing the standard in this part.

Requirements for signs, markings and traffic lights should be left in the standard, and the rules of application should be fixed by order of the Ministry of Transport or a government decree, says Yevgeny Litvin, co-chairman of the Road Safety working group within the framework of the “regulatory guillotine”. “This will allow them to be corrected promptly, if, for example, traffic conditions change, which happens regularly,” he says. “Today, it is impossible to do this quickly, the procedure for changing standards is too complicated. It is possible that part of the authority to establish rules for the use of signs, markings and traffic lights could be given to the regions and applied taking into account local specifics.

The company that will be entrusted with writing the new GOST will be determined in early October. The planned completion date for updating the document is 2024, Rosavtodor told Kommersant, the estimated date of entry into force is no earlier than mid-2025.

Ivan Buranov