150 million rubles to be allocated to improve traffic safety in Kazan

More than 600 Kazan residents injured in car accidents in the first half of 2024

In January-June 2024, 553 accidents with victims occurred in Kazan, Chairman of the Transport Committee Alexey Sidorov said at Business Monday on 22 July. 16 people were killed, and 662 more were injured.

In order to make traffic safer, 15 projected pedestrian crossings, 35 yellow traffic lights of the T.7 type (used to mark unregulated intersections and pedestrian crossings — ed.) near educational institutions and 43 sound warning devices for the blind are to appear in Kazan this year.

The number of smart traffic lights will increase in the capital of the republic by next year. 14 more facilities will be connected to the adaptive control system. There will be 263 of them in total.

“I ask the heads [of districts] to pay attention to the situation near children's facilities. By the beginning of the school year, the situation will improve around a large number of children's institutions. Pedestrian crossings are not ready for this everywhere. There is time, we need to prepare for September 1," Rustem Gafarov, the head of the Executive Committee of Kazan, urged.

150 million rubles to be allocated to improve traffic safety

By the end of 2023, there were 71 emergency sites in Kazan. Tatarstan has allocated 150 million rubles to improve traffic safety for them.

The largest number of accidents occurred at the intersections of Tolstoy — Gorky Streets, Pobedy — Minskaya Prospekts, Nikolai Ershov — Novatorov.

The list of works includes the installation of 400 road signs and 89 lamps, repair of more than 8.8 thousand square metres of road surface. At the moment, work has been carried out on 58 sites — this is 86% of the total volume. The works will be completed on eight more sites by August 1, and on five — by September 1, promised Igor Salakhutdinov, the chairman of the Kazan External Improvement Committee.

Another problem that Rustem Gafarov raised at the meeting was the congestion of intersections with poles with signs and traffic lights. According to him, an excessive number of supports turns into garbage, which will interfere with drivers.

To solve the problem, the head of the Executive committee of Kazan proposed to create a working group together with the Committee of External Landscaping and the traffic police. “We need one window that would coordinate and understand the number of pillars and pillars that need to be installed," he stressed.

Pace of public transport renewal reduced in Kazan

The process of updating public transport in the capital of Tatarstan has slowed down due to a shortage of staff.

“We see this acutely (the shortage of workers — ed.) on the example of public transport. We even had to reduce the number of updated vehicles, since the number of buses is greater than the number of drivers themselves," Rustem Gafarov complained.

In early July, 10 bus routes were shortened in Kazan, and two more were completely abolished. The main reason for the problems in the transport industry was the lack of staff, especially drivers and conductors. In addition, significant wear on the rolling stock also created additional difficulties.

Personnel shortage is also one of the main problems in Metroelectrotrans. In May, the company lacked 207 drivers — 165 trolleybus drivers, 42 tram drivers.

“No one goes to work as a driver or locksmith. Young people want to earn real money on delivery today and now, no one wants to earn about the same money with hard work," complained Metroelectrotrans.