Traffic is crazy in Russia, and a much bigger threat to your personal safety than crime or what have you.
Driving by the majority of Russians is routinely reckless, and has claimed more than 35,000 lives each year. Reckless Driving habits, the lack of proper training, and a mixture of very old to old model cars all what contributes to a high death rate on roads. Drivers attack their art with an equal mix of aggressiveness and incompetence. Guidelines are lax and rarely followed. As a pedestrian, take great care when crossing the roads, as pedestrian crossings are widely ignored. Most drivers are not very well trained and forged their licenses to avoid problems with the police. More importantly, the rapidly expanding economy has lead to an increase in traffic density. Driving in the tunnels are perhaps even more dangerous than driving on the roads — the tunnels are improperly built as a result of underinvestment, and they claim even more causalities than on the roads.
When driving you must not be under the influence of alcohol. Russians have a zero tolerance to this, and the penalty is about two years imprisonment. If you are pulled over by the GAI (Russian Traffic Police), don't worry — they will simply check your papers. By law, the GAI should not bribe you — if that happens, you are entitled to report it to the nearest police station. Under no circumstances try to run away from them — they will shoot your vehicle by force.
The Most Frequently Asked Travel Questions about Russia
Where To Stay & Best Hotels in Russia - updated Apr 2024
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Russia Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.
