The Russian capital was the first in the world to recover traffic interrupted by the height of the pandemic. This is evidenced by the rating published by the Dutch analytical company TomTom.
Infographics “RG” / Alexander Chistov / Sergey Babkin
TomTom’s latest annual ranking includes 416 cities around the world. In the vast majority of megalopolises, the overall traffic congestion has dropped significantly. It reached the highest rate in Moscow – 54 percent. The number of cars registered in the Russian capital in 2020, according to the data center, increased by 4 percent – in absolute terms, this is 155 thousand new cars. Even so, the traffic load was less than in 2019, by 5 percent. Before the pandemic, Moscow residents spent nine days and nine hours a year on the road. And in 2020 “only” eight days and eight hours. The TomTom graphs clearly show what caused the fall. If in February and March the traffic was at the level of 60 percent, then in April it dropped to 8 points. This was the period of the most severe restrictions, when entire sectors of the economy were closed, and driving around the city by car was allowed only with electronic passes. Analytics show that in other megalopolises this period was much longer than in Moscow. For example, in Brussels, after the total lockdown in April, the level of transport activity did not reach 40 percent by the end of the year. Even before Christmas, Belgian roads were loaded by a third, and in Moscow before the New Year – by almost 75 percent. The Russian capital began to show an increase in transport activity in June.
“Moscow’s performance against the background of other world cities really recovered faster,” said Ralf-Peter Schaefer, TomTom’s vice president for traffic issues. Even the remote, continues the TomTom expert, has not become total, since it does not affect all citizens. And at the end of the year 8-point traffic jams came to the city almost on a permanent basis.
“In this aspect, big congestion is rather a good indicator,” commented Alexander Shumsky, head of the expert center “Probok.net”. activities, roads were opened, public transport, albeit with severe restrictions, continued to work. “
Source: Российская Газета by rg.ru.
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