I can’t take it anymore. The traffic here in Krasnodar is bad but in Yubilaney, the traffic is mind-boggling. It takes me at least 45 minutes to travel 5 miles back and forth to work from my apartment each morning and evening.
It really doesn’t matter what time I leave. This morning, I was on the road by 7:35am and the traffic was bumper to bumper snaking through the bad road near the agricultural university. Last night I left work at 7:55pm and all was fine until I hit the side road leading into Yubilany. Took me an hour and ten minutes last night.
So, what’s the deal? We all know that there’s a huge consumer boom in Russia and that almost anyone who can afford it is buying a new car. With the recent economic progress, the number of people who can afford cars has risen remarkably quickly.
I look around the parking lot of my apartment building and at least 80% of the cars are new and 60% are foreign models. There are many many more women driving these days. It used to be a bit unusual to see young woman (early 20’s) driving. Nowadays, women are everywhere driving.
Both of these trends are good obviously. But the bad news is the road system here in Russia is the equivalent of the Saw Mill Parkway in Westchester County New York. The physical design of the roads does not match the current technology of the automobiles being driven.
The local administration is actually doing a lot of great work to rebuild the roads. Actually part of the problem in Yubilaney is that one of the only 2 roads into and out of the district is closed for major renovation. I give the administration a ton of credit for the job they did with Krasnaya Ulitsa. The renovation of the boulevard is amazing. Same for the major road (forget name) which connects the 2 bridges with Stavropolskaya Street.
There are four suggestions I have which, I believe, would dramatically improve the situation.
1. Pave all the side streets in the central part of the city. Believe it or not, right smack dab in the middle of the city are kilometers and kilometers of dirt roads. The residents of these side neighborhoods don’t want traffic so they never got around to paving the streets. These side streets are impassable. 2 foot deep pot-holes filled with water and mud.
So all the traffic is funneled onto the main roads and boulevards and it gets stuck. Simply by paving the side roads in the center of the city the traffic problem would be reduced by half. I feel for the residents but too bad. If you live in the city you can’t expect the traffic volume of a small village.
2. Build 3 more multi-lane bridge across the Kuban River. Right now there’s only 2 bridges and they are always clogged with traffic because of the GAI traffic police check-points there. Rarely, do people get pulled-over but instead traffic slows down to 5 miles per hour and one single lane. The result - more clogged points in the roads system. Get rid of the GAI stations on the bridges and put them on the other side of the river with multi-lane pass-thrus.
3. Build a full circle ring road highway around the city. Consider this fact about today. If you are a truck coming from the seaport of Novorossiysk and driving to Moscow you must drive through the center of the city on Turgeneva Street. Turgeneva Street is already an absolute disaster but wait until IKEA opens next month. Disaster won’t begin to describe it. A highway around the city will pull a lot of traffic out of the center.
4. Send the GAI traffic police out into the city to direct traffic during the rush hours of morning and evening. How about simply pulling over those asshole drivers (yup, that’s the correct word) who INSIST on driving on the wrong side of the road into oncoming traffic so that they don’t have to wait in turn like everyone else.
Anyone who drives in the wrong lane to cut the traffic line should lose their license for 3 months. Do you know how absolutely infuriating it is to be sitting in bumper to bumper traffic for 5 minutes inching up to a cross street when 1, 2, or 3 cars come speeding down the left-hand lane in order to cut the whole line. If that happened in America, somebody would get shot, and quick. It bullshit and the GAI does nothing to stop it.
I know, I know, the administration knows about everything I’m suggesting and they are actually doing things to make the situation better. Yes, the administration did authorize and pay for the installation of new stop-lights which have digital countdown clocks. Great addition. People are now less likely to run the yellow light or block the box.
Anyhow, now I’ve vented and so I feel better. That is until tonight when I have to drive home. Thank God for podcasts. I got to listen to the whole TWiT podcast last night.
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