That in Moscow and other Russian cities will appear the congestion charge zone, it seems, there can be no question of the familiar with the situation. On 7 June the state Duma postponed consideration of the bill government “About the traffic organisation” with a scandalous article, allowing regional authorities to charge fees for travel on local roads. But this is a matter of time. In autumn the question will be able to return to the Duma of the new convocation and the election political risks of taking unpopular laws will be reduced to zero. This directly spoke to elected officials at a recent round table.
According to first Deputy Chairman of the Duma Committee on transport Vitaly Efimov, while “the law as such, no, nothing to discuss, everything is so clear. The raw document and is now more of a “draft bill”. Despite the fact that at the state Council meeting in Yaroslavl, Vladimir Putin stressed the necessity of the law on the organization of safe traffic, in the creation of the government has a number of articles that do not affect the safety, noticed Efimov, keeping in mind and pay measures. Intensity can not be, the transport Committee such initiatives do not miss,” concluded the member of the faction “United Russia”, the former Minister of transport of the Russian Federation.
However, disagreed with his colleague on the state Duma from the Communist party, member of the Committee on property issues Vladimir Rodin: “I Want people from cheating. All that courage in the present Parliament, is not to exclude the controversial article, and to pass a new bill to the state Duma”. (However, it Efimov retorted that their procedural Committee to exclude any items of the bills, and be able to do this a special working group.)
Rodin also called the project of congestion in cities, “the weaning of the money supply” and “defamation” of the population. He recalled, as he introduced payment for Parking in Moscow, and that people do not protest too much, listening to the arguments about congestion within the Boulevard ring, but no time to look back, as the machines got to the ring road, and a similar scenario threatens any experiments with paid entry. It is worth to give a legitimate basis for levies on the population and the officials will not stop. “Why refer to the international experience?! Better organized people the long-promised 25 thousand high-tech jobs that had to pay different fees as in Europe” — used one of the main counterarguments Rodin.
That paid entry into Moscow is, in fact, solidarity and the head of Federation of automobile owners of Russia Sergey Kanaev: “the Fact that the entry fee will be 100%. Just nobody wants to take responsibility. Voters are unlikely to vote for those who will present a “gift”, so the idea stayed on the already tested scheme. So it was with the transport tax. Legislative and Executive power in the end, as if distanciruemsa and give the right of decision-making officials in the field. It is then the Prosecutor’s office will understand where governors gold handles & clock.
Kanaev stressed that if it was just about traffic and not about fundraising with car owners who now, apparently, considered as the main “propertied class”, that could be used to restrict the entry of transport other, non-financial measures — prohibiting signs indicating the time, environmental standards, etc. “you Have to understand that, for example, in Moscow to introduce paid entry now technically really only for the ring road, pay attention to the channel. — There is at least Park and ride facilities”.
The leader of trade Union of drivers Alexander Kotov paraphrased GDP: “Stop scaring people!” According to him, the restructuring started with the introduction of fee-for-toilet — Board, why people can not refuse, and this policy continues in full. The cats threatened in the adoption of such measures, the regular disturbances to avoid”confrontation truckers lasts six months and is not over”) and predicted a new round of price increases, since the carriers, as the owners of the passenger transport, will inevitably try to recoup their costs.
Meanwhile, senior researcher at the Center for the study of transport problems of megacities HSE Pavel Zyuzin (HSE experts known as the active participants of different transport initiatives) noted that the entry fee is an extreme measure, and in Moscow, of course, it is necessary to conduct serious scientific work on the subject of backup resources (construction of interchanges between roads, overpasses, underground Parking, etc.), but the initiative is not taken from the ceiling, and the example of Singapore, London, Milan, Stockholm…
At the same time in separate comments for “MK” Pavel agreed that although, of course, enter congestion charge in cities carries political risks for leaders who face re-election, and this circumstance does not allow to widely spread practice in Russia, but at the level of the Federal legislation the opportunity for local authorities, most likely, will appear. Moreover, Zyuzin said that last year they received a request from the Ministry of transport of Tatarstan on development of the concept of congestion in the Central area of Kazan, near the Kremlin. “Not everywhere this topic is discussed so emotionally as in Moscow”, — said Igor Zyuzin.
The question is whether the initiative congestion charge that paid Parking has failed to deliver on them, “antiparochi” hope, the source replied: “Paid Parking is aimed at regulating the excessive accumulation of static transport and the entry fee needs to regulate moving traffic on the lanes.
Excellent wording! But maybe it just seems to me that the city the DMV reported “the average speed on the outbound highways of the city”, including with pay Parking?! Well, at least it is now clear in which direction will go the rationale of the congestion charge, even while the authorities and strongly disown him.
