ROSDORNIA experts appreciated the experience of organizing traffic in Belgorod.
Experts of the Department of Transport Planning of the Russian Road Research Institute analyzed a unique project of traffic management implemented by the Belgorod authorities. We are talking about the reconstruction of Shchors Street, where a non-standard solution for the device of dedicated lanes was applied. Experts also gave an assessment of the transport reform carried out in the city over the past two years, as a whole.
The peculiarity of the Belgorod dedicated lanes lies in their location. On Shchors Street, dedicated lanes for buses and trolleybuses are built not in the right lanes, but along the axis of the street – all the way from Vatutin Avenue to the overpass, beyond which Bogdan Khmelnitsky Avenue begins. Such placement is also found in other cities, but a single solution for a 4-kilometer section is unique for Russia. Buses and trolleybuses run in the leftmost lanes, stops are decorated with separate platforms with comfortable waiting pavilions, ramps and fences.
To organize the selected strips along the axis was it was decided due to the large number of entrances and exits to courtyards and other abutments to the street - more than 50 pieces in total. Public transport in the right lane would stop because of them so often that it would negate the effect of the introduction of a "highlight". After all, every exit to Shchors Street would be accompanied by a gap in the allocated lane.
The example of Shchors Street in Belgorod shows how the problem of junctions can be solved in practice, according to the head of the Department of Transport Planning of the FAA "ROSDORNIA"Vladimir Pashchenko. The experts of the Institute noted the high quality of the preparatory work: for many years, specialists of the V.G. Shukhov BSTU conducted a detailed sequential analysis of traffic. The developed project took into account all the research results.
ROSDORNIA employees joined the work at the project implementation stage. Experts analyzed it using micromodeling of traffic conditions. We made the current parameters of the movement and its organization at that time. And then we modeled the changes that the project envisaged and calculated the forecast traffic parameters. The micromodel showed the efficiency of the project – according to forecasts, the speed of buses and trolleybuses was supposed to increase by 2.5 times. At the same time, the travel time along the section of individual transport, due to the reconstruction of intersections, should not have increased.
Observations of the already implemented project showed that the calculations were generally correct. The speed of public transport has increased, but so far by 1.8 times. More significant changes should occur when the project of a new route network is also fully implemented – now the pace is being knocked down by old buses of small and medium class. Switching to a large class of transport will reduce the frequency of movement. Also, the work of buses is being slowed down by the preserved order of passengers entering the front door. But this should change in the near future.
As for the Belgorod transport reform as a whole, ROSDORNIA experts support its basic principle: the priority of public transport over personal and the development of all other alternative modes of transport.
"Here Belgorod fully follows global trends and sets an example to many Russian cities that are facing the same problems is the accelerated growth in the number of cars with limited opportunities to expand the road infrastructure," says Vladimir Pashchenko.
In addition to the device of dedicated lanes on several sections of streets, it was decided to create a single carrier for all routes of the urban agglomeration, a new optimized route network was developed, the work of illegal carriers was stopped, the construction of new turn-around platforms and stops was planned. A system of non-cash payments and much more is also being implemented. The implementation of the transport reform continues. ROSDORNIA experts are confident that the experience of Belgorod will be a good example of a consistent and scrupulous approach to transport reform for many Russian cities that have not yet decided on the priorities for the development of their transport systems.
*Learn more about the assessment of the Belgorod transport reform by the experts of the FAA "ROSDORNIA" – in the article by V.S. Pashchenko "Engineering solutions for the Belgorod transport reform"