The rules went around in circles – Newspaper Kommersant No. 35 (7480) dated 03/01/2023

From March 1, the rules of life for Russian drivers are changing – the updated Rules of the Road (SDA) come into force. “Kommersant” tells what it is worth paying attention to in this regard to vehicle owners, SIM users and pedestrians.

The changes to the traffic rules that come into force have been prepared by the Ministry of Transport and the traffic police for several years (“Kommersant” talked about this in detail) and affected a number of aspects of traffic. In particular, the amendments prohibit parking and stopping on “safety islands” (a zone separated from the carriageway for pedestrians crossing the road) and “guide islands” (part of the road to separate flows, often made in the form of a triangle; used at exits from highways). The fine in Moscow and St. Petersburg will be 2.5 thousand rubles, in other regions – 500 rubles. Cars standing on the islands impede passage and visibility, which leads to accidents, the initiators of the amendments explained.

No Stopping or No Parking coverage is no longer associated with the yellow line along the edge of the carriageway. The ban is now valid until the next intersection, another sign or the end of the settlement – regardless of the presence of a yellow line. “Under our conditions, in a predominantly northern country, the markings may be indistinguishable under mud and snow,” said Dmitry Mitroshin, head of the Interior Ministry’s Road Safety Research Center, co-author of the amendments. The prohibition of parking also ceases after the sign “Parking” – this is now directly written in the rules. Previously, there were controversial situations when tow trucks took the car to the impound lot from under the “P” sign, sometimes right from the parking pocket. For buses, we add, a ban on parking in residential areas outside specially designated parking lots has been introduced.

From March 1, white road signs on portable supports, which have the status of “temporary”, come into use. They are similar in format to the current signs on a yellow background (they will also continue to be used). These signs have priority over stationary signs.

The rules for passing roundabouts, marked with the appropriate sign, have been clarified again. The basic principle is preserved: the one who is on the circle is the main one. But, a line appeared in the rules, while the roads should be equivalent. In other words, if the sign “Main Road” is installed in front of the intersection, then the one who is on the circle yields. This was done to eliminate the “ambiguity of interpretations” of the rules, Dmitry Mitroshin explained: many people used to mistakenly believe that the rule “on the main circle” works at all intersections, regardless of the presence of signs. A number of experts criticized the innovation. Lawyer Ekaterina Solovieva, for example, believes that now, if there are no priority signs on the circle, drivers will be confused who is inferior to whom, whether they have an advantage or not, which can provoke an accident. “Instead of solving the problem, we got new collisions and a potential conflict of traffic flows,” agrees the coordinator of the Blue Buckets movement, Petr Shkumatov.

A number of amendments are of a technical nature, but still require clarification, as they are described in the media as innovations. We are talking, for example, about blue markings to indicate paid parking or a section in a traffic light in the form of a silhouette of a pedestrian and a flashing moon-white arrow. These technologies have been used for a long time and are now simply legally enshrined in the traffic rules. The rules include a clause allowing drivers to present all documents to the traffic police in electronic form, but this does not mean at all that you can say goodbye to paper certificates. A full-fledged electronic document at the moment is only an OSAGO policy. Motorists can present to the inspector QR codes from the Gosuslugi.Avto application instead of a driver’s license and STS, but the originals must be carried with them. To cancel this obligation, amendments to the legislation will be required, the Ministry of Transport explained, and the norm was introduced into the traffic rules in advance.

Electric scooters, unicycles, gyro scooters are now allocated to a new category of “means of individual mobility” (IM). Previously, users were considered pedestrians, and if they moved on a SIM with an engine more powerful than 250 watts, then they were moped drivers. In a number of regions (for example, in Tatarstan), inspectors stopped such citizens and checked them as moped drivers for alcohol consumption, which caused a series of litigation. Now the electric scooter has the status of SIM by default, in order to equate it to a moped, the policeman needs to prove this, including supporting documents.

SIM users are required to obey special rules, such as riding on bike paths. If there are none, you can drive onto the sidewalks, provided that the weight of the SIM does not exceed 35 kg. The scooter must give way to pedestrians. The driver of an electric vehicle that weighs more than 35 kg, in the absence of bike lanes and shoulders, is allowed to drive to the right edge of the carriageway, provided that the speed is limited to 60 km / h, and the electric scooter has brakes, a sound signal and identification lights. This permission is valid only for users over 14 years of age. A single speed limit of 25 km/h (already used by kickshare operators) and new signs prohibiting movement in certain areas of the city have also been put into effect.

The traffic police will apply fines from 800 to 1.5 thousand rubles to violators of the SIM. “Of course, the police will not chase them through the parks, along the sidewalks, catch up, measure their speed – such a goal is not set,” Dmitry Mitroshin promised. The mass and speed of the SIM can be measured using “scales and radars,” the Ministry of Transport said, without disclosing details of the technology. It is “appropriate” to find out the speed in the event of an administrative investigation or investigation of criminal cases initiated on the facts of traffic violations, the State traffic inspectorate said in a letter to the regions (“Kommersant” got acquainted with the text). “Any factual data” can be used as evidence, including testimonies of victims, witnesses, expert opinions, photo and video recordings, testimonies of “special technical means”.

Ivan Buranov