Motorways cover 5 per cent of Russia's territory

The total length of Russian motorways is 933,000 kilometres, including 745,000 kilometres of hard-surfaced ones, and they cover 5 per cent of the country's territory. This information was disclosed at parliamentary hearings. According to data provided by the Duma's ecological committee, the indicator of development for Russia's motor road network is much below that for the developed countries. It is 60 kilometres per 1,000 square kilometres of area, compared with 600 kilometres per 1,000 square kilometres in the US. In this connection Russia's federal motorways carry heavy traffic, especially on approaches to regional centres and other large cities. Intensity of traffic on radial roads emanating from Moscow is between 30,000 and 70,000 vehicles a day. About 20 per cent of all federal roads are overloaded and only 30 per cent carry an optimum load.