SZAO Safe Roads of Belarus director. Why Russian safe and high-quality roads kill, and everything is much better in Belarus

They are burned, kicked, demolished by a car, pulled out with a cable. Moreover, it has been noticed that the closer the summer is, the more often hooligans and vandals attack road photofixation cameras. It can be seen that some kind of aggravation ... However, few people know that these sensors in 90% of cases make reckless drivers slow down. According to modest estimates by specialists from the Safe Roads of Belarus enterprise, a unified photofixation system saves about 55 human lives a year.

By the way, “crippling” and stealing sensors is a hopeless business. And we found out why.

Don't hurt yourself

A burnt metal case, which is now being shown to me by the press secretary of the Safe Roads of Belarus SZAO Alexander Khilkevich, is all that remains of the stationary speed control sensor. He regularly "caught" violators in the Bykhov district, until one evening two drunk Mogilev residents pulled out a photo radar with a cable. They loaded it into a car and drove away. They say that they wanted to take it apart - to keep something for themselves, to sell something. And then the photographic recorder was burned in the forest, the “insides” were drowned.

The damaged equipment is first tested and tried to be brought back to life by the specialists of SZAO. If the breakdowns are more serious, such as violations of the speed meter, then the manufacturer, and at the same time a forensic expert, is already dealing with them. “In May this year, hooligans hit mobile cameras on the 32nd kilometer of the Moscow Ring Road and on Zhukov Avenue in Minsk,- Alexander gives examples. - Both hooligans, as it turned out, warmed up by alcohol, were detained almost immediately.” In June, there was such a case in the Brest region: a man was riding a bicycle, and then he stopped near the photoradar and for some reason kicked him. He fell, and the "avenger" jumped on a bicycle and began to wind around the yards, running away from punishment.

Last year, a young driver at the exit from Orsha exceeded the speed limit by 30 km/h, and this was photographed by a camera. And when it worked again on the way back, the motorist hooked the equipment with a cable and pulled it out. I took it apart at home in search of a digital storage device, but found nothing. And in the morning the police officers came to the thief. At the same time, they reminded that the data from the camera is immediately transmitted to the Center for Recording Offenses.

Actions, you see, strange. Firstly, if you exceeded the speed limit and the camera “caught” it, then you will still receive your “letter of happiness”. By the way, some devices record not only the intruder, but also what is happening in real time, and they also have additional cameras for monitoring their own state. Secondly, all control sensors are insured, and in most cases they are restored at the expense of pests.

But the raiders are not immune from liability, including criminal liability. The equipment is quite expensive, and therefore lawsuits can be brought against violators for decent amounts. For example, Mogilev fishermen, who threw a stolen photo-radar into a fire, ended up in custody for 5 months, then there was a trial and a sentence: 4 years in prison for each, enhanced regime plus confiscation of property. But both of them have families… In addition, they had to work hard and compensate for the damage caused – more than 20,000 euros. The convicts then were perplexed: they say, and what only pushed them to such an act? For a Brest vandal, an attack on a mobile sensor in 2015 ended in three years in prison and a lawsuit in the amount of 10,000 euros.

Among the damaged equipment in the repair shop, the project manager of the SZAO Nikolai Rogozhnik showed me some innovations:

- Before you is a new reinforced concrete structure, the foundation for stationary chambers. One of these weighs 200 kilograms. Plus, now we are doing additional pouring with concrete with metal plates. So the total weight of the entire structure with the sensor is about 400 kg. It is unlikely that it will be possible to pull out the photofixator, as they say, with the root.

More than 500 keen "eyes" and new features

Now 466 stationary speed sensors and 57 mobile ones are watching the roads of Belarus. You can treat them differently, but you can’t help but recognize their benefits, Alexander Khilkevich notes: “There were quite good reasons for creating a photofixation system in Belarus, which is successfully used in many developed countries: according to the traffic police, in 2009, 1,322 people died in accidents in the country, in 2010 - 1,190, in 2011 - 1,200. Sad statistics required drastic measures, and they were taken. Now roads and traffic management have improved, motorists and pedestrians have become more responsible, driving culture has improved.”

Last year, compared with 2009, there were almost three times fewer fatal accidents. And this is also the merit of a unified photofixation system. The influence of speed on the accident is obvious. The higher the speed, the more dangerous and the less time to avoid a collision. The representative of the SZAO suggested:

Let's imagine a section of road with a speed limit of 90 km/h and traffic of 4,000 passes per day. Let's assume that 95% of the cars (3,800 cars) were driving at the speed limit and 5% (200 cars) exceeded it. Seeing a sign warning about traffic control, 90% of the drivers who violated traffic rules (180 vehicles) slowed down. That is, the sign worked for prevention, increasing traffic safety. At the same time, 10% of car owners ignored the warning.

The created photofixation system is multifunctional. Already, more than 130 cameras monitor the entire traffic flow at the entrances to and exits from Minsk, in all regional cities. They read the number of cars, take pictures of them. This information is also used in search activities.

Photoradar will be used not only for point control, but also to control the average speed on specific sections of the road. As they did, for example, in Russia, England, Germany. In Belarus, one such pilot zone is being tested in Minsk, the second will soon appear on the M-1 highway.

Control sensors have recently been tested at Minsk intersections. The results, says a representative of the Safe Roads of Belarus, are alarming: cameras record about a thousand violations per day at the intersection alone. Basically, this is driving to a red traffic light, crossing a stop line and a prohibited U-turn. Similar test zones are about to appear in Grodno and Gomel. In addition, a unified photo fixation system is ready, if necessary, to control the passage of technical inspection, payment of insurance and toll.

COUNTED

If we take into account that there are, say, 500 cameras in the country and each one makes about 200 cars slow down a day, then on average almost 100 thousand vehicles slow down every day. It is likely that at least one of them managed to avoid an accident, which means that 365 accidents were prevented in a year. Of these, according to statistics, 15% could be fatal.

DIGIT "SB"

Last year, 651 fewer people died on the roads of Belarus than in 2012.

Lyudmila Gladkaya, "SB. Belarus today”, July 16, 2019
(photo - Sergey Lozyuk)

Companies with the same address

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Register of "fake entrepreneurs"

Register of commercial organizations and individual entrepreneurs with an increased risk of committing offenses in the economic sphere

Register of dishonest suppliers

Register (list) of suppliers (contractors, performers) temporarily not allowed (previously not allowed) to purchase, to participate in public procurement procedures

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There are a lot of questions to the Safe Roads of Belarus CJSC, which places speed cameras on the roads of the country. Users asked about signs, the distribution of money received for fines, rulings and champions. We sent all questions to the Center for fixing offenses and now we have received answers.

- How much does a speed camera cost?

From 25 to 30 thousand euros.

- Why so expensive? What is the most valuable?

Technology is not cheap. But the most perfect of what is available today in the world. In order to choose the cameras that are optimal in terms of characteristics and most suitable for our climate, several models were purchased from different manufacturers. They were installed on a frame above Partizansky Prospekt in Minsk and were seriously tested.

If the owner of the car was deprived of his rights (for repeated speeding), but at the time of the violation, which was recorded by photo fixation sensors, there was a driver with a valid license behind the wheel, what will happen? There is no desire to go to the traffic police and explain, sign the protocol. And here's another question: can they be punished for driving in this case without a license?

On the basis of photographic fixation, only the owner (owner) of the vehicle is held liable.
A protocol is not drawn up, but a decision is made without the participation of a person. It enters into force from the date of its issuance and is binding. It should also be noted that when bringing to responsibility for photo fixation, an official is not obliged to prove the guilt of an individual in exceeding the speed limit recorded by the photo fixation system. This is provided for by various articles of the Code of Administrative Offenses and PICoAP.

In view of the foregoing, when bringing to justice on the basis of the results of photographic recording, an official does not need to find out whether an individual is guilty of committing speeding recorded by the photographic recording system, as well as other circumstances to be clarified when considering a case on an administrative offense. For being deprived, they can be punished only if they are stopped by a traffic police officer. But that's just for now.

Where do funds transferred for fines go? What percentage of the fine goes to the budget? And how is the money divided?

The Center for Photo Fixation of Offenses is not a recipient of payments for photo fixation and does not exercise control over the transfer of funds to the current account. Payments made on photofixation fines are subject to transfer to the republican budget. The recipient of such payments is the main department of the Ministry of Finance for the Minsk region. The function of distribution of funds credited to the republican budget, as well as control over their distribution, does not fall within the competence of the State Traffic Inspectorate and CJSC "Safe Roads of Belarus". These powers are vested in state bodies, including tax authorities.

- What is this structure - SZAO "Safe Roads of Belarus"? Does she have the right to make decisions?

Employees of the SZAO do not make decisions. This is done by specialists of the department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs on the basis of the powers delegated to them by law. Only official sources can provide information on appeals against decisions.

- Is a warning label required?

Normative documents, including traffic rules and STB, the information board "Control of the traffic mode" with the inscription "Radar Photocontrol" - is not regulated.

At the same time, at the initiative of the owner of photo-fixation systems - Safe Roads of Belarus CJSC, which installs, maintains equipment and monitors its operation in accordance with the investment project for the implementation and operation of a unified system for photographing speed violations in Belarus, a from the State Traffic Inspectorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs information board "Control of the traffic mode".

This sign is for informational purposes only and does not introduce or cancel any restrictions on the traffic regime. For the above reasons, the absence of a stationary or temporary road sign "Traffic control" in front of the installation site of the speed control sensor is not a basis for exemption from administrative liability for violation of the speed limit.

How long does it take for the fine to arrive?

By law, a penalty can be imposed within two months from the date of the offense. The decision, depending on a number of circumstances, may be sent the next day after the offense, or maybe 40-50 days later. But no later than the period specified by law (two months).

- Who holds the record for the number of fines in 2014?

Personal data is not subject to disclosure.

- What elevation are the cameras set to?

The cameras control the upper permissible speed limit set on a specific section of the road in accordance with the traffic rules and the traffic organization project.

There is a speed camera on the Moscow Ring Road. What mode was it set to when work was being done there and limits were set at 50 and 70 km/h?

The speed limit set by temporary road signs is not controlled by the systems.

- What technologies are used to recognize the vehicle/number plate?

Both automatic system and manual processing.

- I was photographed by the camera, the numbers are not visible, frames with curtains. Can I be calculated?

Yes. There are methods to do this.

- How to fool the camera?

Surprise her - don't speed. Drive by the rules, take care of yourself and your loved ones.

Is it legal to install a radar with a photo flash that fixes the front number? One night I was so blinded. The first thought was that a car jumps out at you from an oncoming one.

Participation in road traffic is always associated with danger and surprises, for which the driver must be prepared. A rhetorical question: what if lightning, a thunderstorm, headlights of an oncoming car, an animal or a person run out onto the roadway? Learn traffic rules, read the signs, obey the speed limit, and there will be no flash.

- Do speed sensors work for motorcycles?

I took a picture of the speed camera, but I was sure that I had already passed the “End of settlement” sign. There is no particular desire to go to the Brest region from Gomel to check. But if I find the place where I was photographed, and it turns out to be outside the settlement, then what should I do?

If a decision is made, and the owner of the vehicle does not agree with it, it is necessary to apply in writing to the traffic police at the place of residence.

- Why do I need to carry a receipt to the traffic police? Why these extra movements?

You must carefully read the decision: you do not need to carry a receipt to the traffic police. The reverse side of each resolution contains information on how to pay the fine. In the case of payment using the "Settlement" system (ERIP), information about payments enters the database of offenses via electronic communication channels and is attached to the decision number.

However, there is a need to send receipts to the Photo Fixation Center in case of payment of fines for photo fixation through post offices, since Belpochta RUE is not connected to ERIP. In this case, the repayment of the debt is carried out by employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs on the basis of receipts, which must be sent to the address: Minsk, st. Krasnoarmeyskaya, 21. If the receipt is not sent in a timely manner, as mentioned earlier, the collection of the fine will be carried out by the bailiff, who must provide the original receipt. If the receipt is thrown away, payment will have to be proven. You can restore the receipt through the post office, the register of the Ministry of Finance or the tax office at the place of residence.

- Is it necessary to go to the post office for a "letter of happiness" if I do not need it?

Not necessary. Handing over a postal item is the “headache” of the postman, receiving a postal item is the right of a citizen, and not an obligation enshrined in law.

Those letters that came to me took a month and a half to reach. Where have they been all this time? I live at the place of registration, in Minsk, violations - at the entrance to Minsk ...

The term for imposing a penalty under the law is two months from the date of the offense. Delivery of a registered item by mail employees is carried out within one month. Hence the timing...

You can not wait. For users of Internet services on the official website of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the section "Photofixation" contains information about unpaid fines for photofixation. After payment, when updating information, information about offenses for which penalties were collected is removed from the site.

Received a letter of happiness. Photo of the front of the car with my face. Is it legal? How does this tie in with the current legislation in terms of privacy, etc.

Legal. Personal life and participation in road traffic are different concepts. Citizens in the car are open for viewing in equal part to both other road users and photo fixation systems. In addition, the decision is sent by registered mail and provides for its receipt personally by the person held liable. Information about offenders is not provided to third parties.

- Car with transit numbers. It was captured by a speed camera. Will the former owner be fined?

No, it won't.

- Cameras capture only speeding or other traffic violations too?

So far, only speed.

- Does the camera respect the "70" sticker?

Yes. If your car has a reduced color image of the road sign "Maximum speed limit" 70 km/h, please note the following: the installation of this sign on the vehicle is an official prescription for limiting its maximum speed. In accordance with subparagraph 91.3 of paragraph 91 of the SDA, the driver is prohibited from exceeding the speed indicated on the identification sign "Speed ​​​​limit" installed on the vehicle. This requirement applies to all drivers driving a vehicle with a "Speed ​​Limit" identification mark, regardless of driving experience.

How high are the cameras set if, for example, the speed limit is 60, 70, 90, 120 km/h on a section of the road?

At the same time, such speed limits cannot be set on one section of the road. If one road is meant, but its different sections, then you should know that the organization of traffic, taking into account the characteristic features of the road segment (tortuosity, visibility, accident rate, etc.), and, accordingly, the established speed limits can be different.

Why is the database of violations by cameras only for informational purposes and is not always updated correctly and in a timely manner?

There is no database of violations by cameras. There are various databases of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The information stored in them is official and is not provided to third parties. Information about offenses contains personal data of citizens and affects their personal interests. Such information is provided only in the manner prescribed by law. Only the number of the offense is placed on the website of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, by which only the citizen himself and the bodies that have access to the database of the Ministry of Internal Affairs on offenses can identify the person.

Why are protocols drawn up for speed violations recorded by the Arena speed meter operating in automatic mode?

Speed ​​meters "Arena" do not apply to technical means operating in automatic mode. Such meters may be used by traffic police inspectors of the traffic police who serve on the roads.

- When will the cameras finally completely replace the "little men with hair dryers" in the bushes?

It is impossible to replace traffic police officers with photofixation systems. Inspectors supervise traffic not only in terms of compliance with the speed limit, they also have a number of other powers and duties to control the order of movement of pedestrians and vehicles.

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64 people died in a fire in the Winter Cherry - the event shocked the whole country, the consequences are still being discussed, even urgent amendments to laws are being adopted. More than one person is to blame for these events, the system itself has long since failed, which is why problems have been accumulating for years. Sooner or later this was bound to happen.

It wasn’t just the people in the Kemerovo shopping mall that died during that ill-fated weekend — 67 people across the country died on Saturday and Sunday. Tens of thousands of people die every year, our streets and roads have long been the scene of hostilities, as the country's leadership speaks about. Only, unlike the Kemerovo events, there is no mourning for the victims of infrastructure, they don’t talk about it on TV, and some deputies even offer to increase the speed and collect even more victims.

The only reaction of local officials, police officers and compilers of standards for rivers of blood from accidents is more fences, bright frames and underpasses. There is even a special federal program under which subsidies are allocated from the general budget for road repairs in accordance with GOSTs. The program is considered successful - the total number of accidents is reduced. The only problem is that the number of victims from accidents is very often growing. In some regions based on open data collected Here are the "talking" numbers:


fences were bought, but they didn’t buy to think

No one wants to admit that the system is failing and proven methods are not working. It is not customary for us to admit mistakes, it is much easier to sanction deaths. Russia to this day remains a country with one of the highest death rates on the roads in Europe. Our neighbors followed the proven European path and adopted it - in 10 years Belarus has reduced the number of victims on the streets and roads by three times.

Now the death rate in road accidents in Belarus is lower than the average in the EU countries, although in 2005 they were at the levels of Russia - how did they do it? GorProjects have prepared material about this, it will be useful to send this post to officials of your city, show statistics to designers or request the position of the traffic police of your city. Further about the experience of Belarus without changes:

The bicycle has already been invented

Belarusians seriously thought about the high mortality in traffic accidents at the beginning of the 2000s. After studying the European experience in 2006, activists of the Belarusian Association of Transport Experts and Surveyors (BAES) organized an interdepartmental conference in Minsk to solve this problem, which brought together experts from the Swedish Vision Zero program and representatives of 16 other countries; some of them have already proven themselves in the fight against road deaths.

“The growth of motorization in our country came at a time when others had already learned to protect road users. Why reinvent the wheel? It’s most likely to adopt someone else’s, but successful experience, ”explained Yuriy Vazhnik, chairman of the BNPP.

According to the main Belarusian activist for safe roads, they were very lucky with this conference: its participants were able to infect local officials with the idea of ​​​​zero deaths in road accidents. Vazhnik recalls that the head of the traffic police did not quite understand then why the Swedes set themselves the task of "Zero deaths", it seemed impossible to the policeman. He was answered: "We want it to be zero, and we are doing everything possible for this."

- Well, they, GAI officers, blurted out: "Let's be "Minus 100" every year," Vazhnik retells the results of the conference.

The project began to be implemented literally in such a raw form. “In fact, there was no project, only these two words “Minus a hundred”. The idea was enough,” he adds. Following the words, the shoulder straps of local leaders who could not cope with the decline flew off - such traffic police chiefs were considered ineffective.

“We started with universal tools: artificial bumps, motion calming, improved control,” Vazhnik explains.

And the initial stage proved that what is needed is not a clever text with a program, but simply an infectious idea. The idea of ​​"Minus a hundred" was understandable to people, it forced them to do what was necessary.

- I remember that I went to study in Sweden, just on the topic of artificial bumps, there were almost none in Belarus at that time. I come back, and there are 8 of them a day. I ask: "guys, what's going on?". And they answer me: “That’s it, don’t interfere already, we are working.”

It's not the driver's fault, but the designer's

At the next stages, such obvious measures were no longer enough, and the BNPP sat down to analyze the accident and study the statistics provided by the traffic police.

“We take raw materials from them, analyze, process and sell a ready-made information system with good visualization, from which it becomes clear what needs to be done. For example, these are accident factors and the degree of importance, that is, the largest number of accidents. As a result of the analysis, it turns out that all forces are thrown into the fight against drunk drivers, and they now make only 2 percent of the total number of accidents. Therefore, forces must be switched to other zones, much less prosperous.

For example, the latest graphs show that everything is more than okay with drunk drivers in Minsk, residents of the capital observe the speed limit, and there are very few even head-on collisions. And the priority factors influencing mortality in road accidents turned out to be the insecurity of pedestrians and the dark time of the day, it is quite possible that these two factors are interconnected, and if one is excluded, the second will also disappear.

As follows from the statistics for Minsk, in 2017, out of 41 deaths in the city, 23 were pedestrians. And most often fatal accidents occur from midnight to three in the morning and from six to nine in the morning.

Dmitry Navoi, head of the technical means and systems of the traffic police of the Main Internal Affairs Directorate of the Minsk City Executive Committee, says that they analyze in detail each of the serious accidents in order to establish the entire chain that led to them. He gave an example: the driver crashed into a support at night and died. It turned out that he was going to a night pharmacy, that is, he could not refuse this trip. This means that socially significant establishments and institutions that operate at night must either be accessible in every district so that people do not drive at a dangerous time of the day, or it must be as safe to move along the streets at night as it is during the day. .

According to Vazhnik, Minsk will completely abandon savings on street lighting, since it is not rational to save on already insignificant expenses (lighting consumes only three percent of the total energy traffic). When asked why night accidents occur, Vazhnik cannot yet say, because "such a study has not yet been conducted." So he responded to the suggestion that the roads are empty at night, so drivers start to accelerate.

“There are non-obvious and paradoxical reasons to take the same drunk drivers: we fought with them, but it turned out that they had nothing to do with it for a long time, and mortality in road accidents almost does not depend on them,” the public figure reminds once again.

good road

After the Minus One Hundred program, Minsk moved on to the development of the Good Road conceptual campaign. “Good in Belarusian means, among other things, good, safe,” Vazhnik explains.

Minsk Road Safety Strategy “Good Daroga” developed by Yury Vazhnik and BNPP

This is how the action plan from 2012 to 2015 appeared, that is, a systematic approach. This program is approved at the level of all responsible departments; it is the main driving document that defines annual goals and tactical tasks. If the first “Good Road” aimed to reduce the number of deaths in road accidents to 50 people (the plan was overfulfilled, in 2015 41 people lost their lives in accidents), then the next campaign (2016-2020) public figures and authorities intend to reduce the death rate in the capital to 25 people .

Another measure is a redesign with four lanes and centers of gravity. In such places, drivers very often park on the left and right, thereby leaving one to one and a half lanes for traffic. In such conditions, pedestrians, including children, who are not visible due to obstacles such as cars, often become victims of road accidents. Also on busy streets for pedestrians began to build safety islands.

According to Vazhnik, they also adopt the Swedish experience, but adapt it to the specifics of the republic. For example, if interested architects and designers stood at the origins of the Vision Zero project in Sweden, then in Belarus they still needed to be interested. How exactly to do this has already been figured out, but the system has not yet been fully implemented.

“We are little interested in what exactly the designer will include in his project of a new road, because the implementation of norms and standards does not ensure safety,” explains police lieutenant colonel Navoi. “Therefore, we write to the designer: there should be no more than such and such a number of accidents and injuries per year on this street, these are our requirements. And the designer must adapt to them, he signs a document that, roughly speaking, he guarantees that no more than two people a year will die on this street. And we are already watching, the time has come.

If there are more accidents and injuries in them than predicted, sanctions will be applied to the designers. The head of technical means and systems of the Moscow traffic police, Dmitry Navoi, cites as an example a classic case in the yard when children fall under the wheels of a car: the car drives out and there is no danger in its visibility zone, but a child runs out from around the corner, whom the driver could not notice from -for improperly planned space.

- The easiest way is to blame the person who made a mistake in an accident. The fault is not the person, but the circumstances. The question “Who is to blame” is not needed to create safe roads, it needs to be thrown out. We need the question “What to do,” Vazhnik conceptually adds.

Not enough accidents

It is the redesign and design of streets that is in the above graph in the top three most important factors affecting accidents. Pavel Astapenya, the director of another company dealing with road problems, ETSConsult, cites sidewalks and zebras as an example. For a safe crossing, they must be built on the same level and made with the same surface, and pedestrian participants on the roads must be strongly distinguished by color and other signals. However, according to him, such a point approach is beginning to become obsolete.

“We have already dealt with the centers of accidents. What is the problem of Minsk now? People continue to die, in smaller numbers, but this happens unsystematically. And you can’t do anything about it until you make systemic decisions. Now we need to transfer people from cars to public and alternative transport, as well as to reduce the speed completely.

Yury Vazhnik also speaks about too few accidents for good analysis and action. The last two years in Minsk there are about 40 fatal accidents, and all in different places.

“And we don’t know what to do yet, there are no mechanisms,” Vazhnik says.

However, the Good Road campaign has already begun to reduce car traffic in the city. The first serious measure is the paid parking system in the center of Minsk. It is not quite usual there: violators, as a rule, are not even fined, but people regularly pay, and gradually stop driving their cars into the center. All because of the innovative approach of the activists: they came up with an unusual system of cards.

- Over the past year, 5 or 6 people have been fined, - Vazhnik comments. - We came up with a system of cards, almost like in football: green, yellow, red. The Russian "Stopham" is an idiotic movement that exacerbates the conflict. And at first we trumpeted for a long time that there would be paid parking, handing out green cards to drivers. They trumpeted to such an extent that people began to ask: “but when will you finally make them?”. As a result, they did, those drivers who did not pay were given yellow cards. Those who did not understand and continued not to pay received red cards and then they already realized that they were somewhere in the wrong place, in the wrong group. And we, in turn, did not advertise explicit measures: what would happen if you did not pay and get a card. And the drivers began to fear this “what will happen” and began to pay. It has a stronger effect on driver behavior than anything else.

Transferring people to public transport is not difficult for Minsk, here it is quite developed. The capital of Belarus has a tram, electric buses have appeared, the subway has remained since Soviet times, and trolleybuses and buses run around the city, convenient transport cards have been made for passengers.

But in order to transfer people to alternative transport, there are some difficulties: there is no real bicycle infrastructure and a system of bicycle paths in Minsk yet. However, there they came up with bicycle crossings similar to pedestrian crossings, so that cyclists could not dismount when crossing the road, but continued to ride. Cyclists move either along roads with cars, or along sidewalks, which are very wide in Minsk. In the meantime, the traffic police is lobbying for the appearance of bike paths.

Both Vazhnik and Navoi have repeatedly mentioned non-standard and innovative solutions, which, obviously, are not spelled out either in the rules of the road, or in GOSTs, or anywhere else. In Russia, this is often a problem, since neither the customer nor the performer will definitely want to deviate from the standards on paper. However, in Belarus they also figured out what to do with it.

“If something is not provided for by GOST, then special technical conditions are issued for this,” says Navoi. - And if something is not in the rules of the road, the traffic police can experiment at their discretion, as in the case of cycling. Thus, we try something, analyze it and, if necessary, we already add it to the traffic rules and state standards.

Despite the amount of work done, many useful reforms by the traffic police and social activists still cannot be carried out. For example, the authorities have reduced the speed limit to 50 kilometers per hour in residential areas and the city center (with the exception of areas where there are signs that further restrict speed and highways where you can drive fast), but traffic rules allow you to exceed the speed limit without a fine by another 19 kilometers per hour. The traffic police intends to cancel this concession for drivers, but cannot.

- The automotive minority is too active, and it is very difficult to resist it. Try to transfer the entire bureaucracy to buses in Moscow, will it work? Navoi says about problems similar to those in Russia.

Russian analogue

At the beginning of 2018, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev signed a plan to reduce deaths called "Death Zero", but it has nothing in common with the Swedish Vision Zero, except for the name. The main difference between the projects: the approach. The Swedes, like the Belarusians, abandoned the model in which the driver or pedestrian is considered the culprit of the accident. They considered that people tend to make mistakes, which means that it is necessary to eliminate the consequences of mistakes, that is, to make the environment so safe that even a violation of the rules will not affect the life and health of a road user.

“In order to achieve the declared indicators for reducing mortality, it is necessary to change the behavior of road users, developing their unconditional compliance with the rules and regulations of the road,” RBC described the program of the Russian authorities.

Literally, this means that the emphasis will be placed on educational and educational goals, and intolerance will be developed towards violators, which is contrary to the idea of ​​Vision Zero. And as the study “Deprivation and Road Safety” conducted at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (the university, among other things, studies the impact of external factors on the health and safety of the population) showed, promoting the correct behavior on the roads is ineffective and works only together with more radical reforms.

Also, the approved program refers to the reduction of street crossings in favor of off-street ones, which also only increases the likelihood of fatal accidents.

In general, this is not the first attempt by Russian officials to seriously address the high mortality rate in accidents. Navoi says that some heads of regional traffic police from Russia, as well as the now dismissed head of the main department Viktor Nilov, came to Minsk to peep the experience, but in the end no one adopted it.

According to Navogo, he personally gave a tour of the city for Nilov, showed all the innovations with bumps, transitions and bike crossings, but he was not very impressed. The next day, Navoi prepared a presentation for his Russian colleague with the statistics of fatal accidents per 100,000 people, where he included both Belarus and Russia, as well as other CIS countries.

- How? How did you do it? - Navoi recalls Nilov's reaction.
“So I showed you yesterday,” the Belarusian joked.
— Is it really that simple?

Navoi confirms that the reforms are indeed not as complex as they might seem, but they had to pay attention to detail for many years to achieve such low rates. However, neither Navoi nor Vazhnik consider them low: their goal is zero deaths on the roads of Belarus.

Photos from Belarus: Maria Bystrova
The author of the article about Belarus: Igor Ermolenko

PS Another telegram channel came to life at GorProjects: Urban Projects