RU

A press conference by Nikolay Asaul Deputy Transport Minister, Igor Titov CEO of JSC "NIIAT" and Sergei Sukharev CEO "Rosavtotransa" was held in RBC media company on the 24th of October

25 October 2013

The subject of the conference was: “Transport Mobility of the Russians: private cars vs. public transport?"

The road transport carries nowadays more than 60 % of all passengers and more than half of all cargo in Russia. We are pleased to note a substantial decrease in road accidents: a 5.3 % decrease in the number of accidents and a 10.5 % decrease in the number of deaths and injuries. The industry is on the rise, and a federal program to renovate the vehicle park has been adopted for the first time in the post-Soviet period.

The way to eliminate traffic jams and provide better mobility lies in the change of people's preferences from private transport to public. And in order to facilitate this reorientation, we should make public transport more comfortable, safe, predictable. The Ministry has been sponsoring the development of a corresponding tariff policy to make transportation activities in the country economically more attractive.

A challenge also is to make living in cities more comfortable. To this end, the passenger must make a voluntary choice in favor of public transport. Making this choice one takes into account convenience, comfort, travel time, safety, and cost. Once these indicators win over private transport, his natural selection will be in favor of public transport. The Deputy Minister briefly provided his vision of the ways to achieve this goal and activities of the Ministry in this direction. He also stressed the importance of electric transport and the need to bring it back to the streets of Russian cities as well as outlined steps taken by the transport authorities.

At the end of the conference the Deputy Minister told correspondents how his Ministry collaborates with law-enforcement agencies on the prevention of terrorist threat.