Road Rage

Like many big cities, traffic in Moscow is terrible.

I found some interesting statistics about the traffic from Pravda.ru, where a study by the Academy of Forecasting noted:

Congestion Will Be a Serious Problem
Traffic in the city will come to a halt once the number of cars in Moscow exceeds 4.5 million, provided that there is no improvement in the city’s road intersections and parking lots. In total, the number of cars owned by Muscovites are slightly above 3 million these days. According to statistics, 10-15% of those cars move about the city at a time, while the remaining ones sit in parking lots or garages. With about 250 thousand cars on the roads, the traffic in the city creeps at a snail’s pace. The traffic will collapse once the number of cars on the roads exceeds 300 thousand at a time. The traffic in Moscow is expected to come to a standstill sometime around 2012.

Even more interesting was the emphasis on the credibility of our futurologists: The future of Russia’s capital is not told by some soothsayers gazing at the coffee grounds. Predictions are provided by experts holding academic degrees, employed by the Academy of Forecasting.

I wonder what it takes to be qualified as a futurologist?

Finally, the Economist relates that "An organisation called 'The Register of Non-Drinking Men', established to help Russian women find sober husbands, has a new mission. It has set up a website for people who are fed up with two- to four-hour commutes; stressed drivers can try to swap jobs with someone who lives nearer their workplace. It remains to be seen how successful this venture will be."

You can view their traffic website at http://www.antiprobka.ru/

Even though it's in Russian, there are some great illustrations that get the story across quite well. First, a picture flashes, saying "when you work near home" and it shows happy people and families smiling, fishing and spending time together. Then, a second picture flashes, with the caption "when you work far from home", with angry people on the roads and crowding into the metro.