Money Growing: Why the Queues?

We do not drive, we stand still. The circular structure of the city, the absence of a branched out radial network and inter-radial communications have led to a transport collapse. The large transport arteries were constructed last century, and new ways to distribute the growing transport streams have not been created. "The main cause of traffic jams in Moscow is the absence of alternative routes," considers Alexei Bogdanov, director of the office real estate department and partner at S.A. Ricci / King Sturge.

Promising journey

The area of London’s roads make up 17 per cent of the total area of the city. In Moscow this parameter is more than half at almost 8 per cent. In the last three years China has annually spent $500 billion on the construction of transport infrastructure. They understand that the capital ultimately depends on the development of this or that region. Moscow is the opposite: first real estate premises are constructed, then attempts to correct the road conditions in the area are undertaken.

For example, this is what happened at Sokol and Aeroport metro stations. On Leningradsly shosse the intensity of the transport stream so has grown so much that one of the worst traffic spots in the city has been formed. Now the highway is being expanded, and there will be a section with no traffic lights, which will certainly unload the highway. "However the problem on Leningradka, and on other large highways of the city remains an unresolved problem," Bogdanov complains.

There are no special solutions for unloading the city centre stipulated in the accepted general plan of development of the city to 2025. The mayor is drawn to a “simple” solution, probably involing limiting entrance to the city. Ideas have been raised of making a one-way Garden Ring, and the most recent plans were to make 58 streets in the center one-way (Malaya Ordynka, Malaya Polyanka, Yakimanka, etc) . The project still hasn’t been approved yet.

An effective variant, according to Bogdanov, may be the development of a municipal taxi system. For example, in Singapore skyscrapers have been built up everywhere yet there are absolutely no traffic jams. On the one hand there the prices for cars are too high, and on the other taxi services are well developed: prices are low and taxi parks are big.

International experience testifies that traffic jams can be managed: by limiting entrance to the center, by forming park and ride car parks, by creating a developed network of public transport and a system of parking polices. But in the Russian capital unlike London the underground network is not as branched out, and they are getting rid of tram lines (at the same time in Moscow there are plans to create a network of high-speed trams).

If it’s not traffic jams…

The road reserves of the center of the Russian capital were used up along time ago. Development of new business complexes, for example, on reorganized industrial zones (Kozhevnicheskaya, Derbenevskoi, Frunzenskaya Naberezhnaya, etc.) is only possible with the simultaneous organization of new transport arteries, but this does not occur. The partality towards the construction of business complexes in place of former factories has been continuing since Soviet times when people from quiet, residential areas came to the center for work. The situation is even worse, as since then the number of people and cars has increased tenfold. In the last two years the number of a privately owned cars has increased 1.5 times, notes GVA Sawyer.

With the reconstruction or construction of premises, the developer partially solves the transport problems. For example, AFI Development has spent rather large funds on the complex reconstruction work of the Belorusskaya area. It is planned for transport streams to be redistributed by increasing throughput and facilitating access to the center of Moscow via 1st Tverskaya-Yamkaya ulitsa, Belarussky station and two main roads leading to Sheremetyevo airport.

But it is also necessary to consider that after realization of the project - and it includes more than 500,000 sq.m of underground shopping and entertainment, office buildings, apartments and hotel - loading on Tverskaya and the new roads will considerably increase. And the Belaya Ploshchad business center and the project of company Vel are almost completed.

In the area near Paveletskaya metro station, a number of buildings have already been constructed and PromSvyazNedvizhimost is realizing several large business park projects on the place of a former industrial zone. Eco-office has two projects in this area: Kozhevhiki and Derbenevsky business parks. The transport accessibility of these complexes leaves much to be desired. And although you can walk to Krasnye Kholmy from the metro station, you can only get to the business parks by car. In this area it is always difficult to get on and off the Garden ring from adjoining highways. On Kozhevincheskaya because of tram lines along the street and spontaneously parked cars there is a constant traffic jam.

There is a similar situation on Letnikovskaya Ulitsa and Dubininskaya ulitsa even without tram lines. There are constant traffic jams on Derbenevskaya ulitsa. Here there are two main issues: the entrance onto the embankment and the exit onto onto Zhukov proezd. However, Zhukov proezd is remarkable in that at practically any time during the day there are vans going back and forth in the dirction of the freight yard.

"Areas that remain more attractive from the point of view of the transport situation are those in zones that cross the main transport highways of the city,” says Oleg Spoda, director of development at Colliers International. “Here it may be easier to choose a route depending on the developing situation with the traffic in the city.”

He gives the Khamovnikov area between the Garden Ring and the Third Transport Ring where the Luch business center (Horus Capital) and the Krasnaya Roza business center (KR Properties) are located as an example. In this area, which is not a through way, you can drive without problems. Without too mch work it is possible to get onto the Garden ring or the Third Ring in both directions, to get to the center by Prechistenka or Ostozhenka, and onto Komsomolsky prospekt or Kutuzovsky prospekt. Under the ground the area serves metor stations Park Kultury, Kievskaya, Frunzenskaya and Sportivnaya. "Businesses located here have convenient access to resources located in all areas of Moscow," assures Spoda. However, a manager that has left a business complex in this area will be left standing at the next crossrosds.

"In general, in central areas movement is slowed by narrow streets on the one hand, and problems with accessing highways on the other," Bogdanov summarizes.

Parking rules

For office real estate to be classified class A or B according to classifications developed in 2006 it is recommened that secure parking places:

- within the Garden Ring have no less than 1 parking place per 100 sq.m of rented space;

- between the Garden Ring and the Third Ring Road have no less than 1 parking place per 80 sq.m;

- between the Third Ring and 10km from the MKAD have no less than 1 parking space per 60 sq.m;

- outside these areas have one parking space per 30-40 sq.m or more.

Developers currently try to reach new figures in order to attract tenants. In the Krasnaya Roza business quarter on Ulitsa Lva Tolstovo there is 1 parking space per 60 sq.m. In City there will be a total of about 24,000 car parking places. That’s about 1 place per 100 sq.m of office space. In the Gorod Stolitsa project the largest underground car park in Europe, located on six levels, has been stipulated. It has been designed at a rate of 1 parking place per 90 sq.m of office space. In the Federatsiya multifunctional complex (the developer is Mirax) 2,000 spaces have been allocated. In Imperia Tower 1,530 places have been allocated for the whole complex.

How it’s done in the rest of the world

London

In London the following measures have been taken to solve the transport problems of the city: paid entrance to the city centre, except for emergency vehicles, taxis and motorcycles; a tenfold increase in the cost to enter the center if you do not pay on time; the underground has been made private-municipal - the city owns it but private companies serve it; high penalties for traffic offences; allocated lanes for public transport; high cost for parking places, restrictions, penalties and removals for infringement of the rules. The result has been a 40 per cent reduction in the number of cars in the center, as for some motorists it is too expensive to go into the center every day under such circumstances and they have hence changed to public transport.

Singapore

The sale of cars is under the control of the authorities. To get a car you first of all need to buy a special 10-year driving license, for which you need to take part in a monthly state auction. Import duties on cars is 41 per cent. Driving an unlicensed cars could result in a prison sentance. Registering a vehicle can cost 140 per cent of the face-value of the car. All roads in the country are under video surveillance. Accessible taxis. For each state institution the work schedules are organized so that the streams of arriving and departing employees do not cross.

New York

The solution to transport problems in New York have been influenced by the city’s architecture - areas are organized by principle of a lattice effect, which allows you to avoid traffic jams on parallel streets, without deviating from your route. Roads are divided into local and transit. High-speed transit lanes are laid above city, taking cars from New York the shortest way. The number of taxis, buses and minibuses, especially in the center has increased and they have special lanes. A campaign to get the middles classes and more wealthy members of the population to use public transport saw some people switching to using the subway and buses.