Magic Spot
This one is a magic spot in Moscow, Russia. It is famous for it’s weird attraction of road accidents. With a strange regularity cars crash each other right on this spot, many times in the year, as you can see on those photos.
| Tags: Automotive, cars, moscow, russia, russian drivers, russian roads |
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4:39 pm
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wham!
Sadly Russians are so poor they cannot afford a single trafic lights even after 100 car crash at that intersection.
i wish there was something like English india website so i can write how poor their people are
Poor traffic engineering + lousy road maintenance + lack of driving skills and automotive culture + lack of general culture and respect for the law… and you get this kind of Bermuda triangle.
stfu… the roads in downtown moscow are much much better maintained than most american cities.. ever been to NYC, Boston, or SF? Lack of driving skills can be said of a lot of countries.. lack of general culture? also bs
Hey Spaceman Spiff - what planet are you from? I was driving in Boston area (Jamaica Plains/Cambridge/Mass Av/Malden/downtown) all last summer. The roads are ALMOST as bad as in Moscow, but then again, they blew their entire road budget on the Big Dig boondoggle. As for the other cities… the roads where people actually drive are nicely maintained: it’s when you get into the ghetto (defined as “any area with multi-unit housing”) you start running into potholes. Makes sense: who cares about poor-ass bastards or snobbish hippies that eschew automobiles? Been to San Fran and NYC, too - same pattern. Ditto for Atlanta, N’Awlins, Chicago, Portland (OR and ME), DC metro, etc., etc.
You can say what you wish from other countries, but we’re discussing Russia here - and lack of driving skills there is a fact of life. Ditto for the absence of automotive (or general) culture. Glad you don’t contest the rampant disregard for the law, though.
Another thought… let’s compare roads in some provincial town Stateside (ummm, say, Oak Ridge, TN) and those in… no, not Uglich or Omsk, but Moscow. I am not at all sure Moscow would come on top, despite its municipal budget being a couple of orders of magnitude greater than that of Oak Ridge.
As for culture, case in point. Random discussion thread on a Russian forum. If you don’t like this one, pick any other. Let’s agree that Ivan the Alkie wouldn’t be posting online, yet at least 30% of the posts are filled with pointless obscenities and insults. And that is the level of culture of someone who, presumably, has some sort of education and sufficient income to afford a computer and internet connection. QED.
“30% of the posts are filled with pointless obscenities and insults”
Hmm ya, cuz you know, distance, anonymity, and unbridled freedom of speech just BREED intellectual discussion. Show me an unmoderated english forum and i’ll show you a hole in your argument as big as a toilet seat.
Hey, smiley urine, why should I have to look for evidence for your assertions?
http://www.youtube.com
where is it?
This place is a crossing of Pribrezny passage and Leningradskoye highway in Moscow.
http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=55.87138,37.459538&spn=0.00425,0.008411&t=h&z=17
True about poor traffic engineering and lousy road maintenance but I don’t know about the lack of general culture… the intersection does look a bit confusing
Speaks volumes, I’d say. What do they teach in the basic driving course? “If you are not sure you have the priority - yield. If you are sure, but the other party acts like an idiot - yield.” It’s not even the common courtesy, it’s common sense… something too many Russians lack.
A drivers license can be bought easily, and to avoid all the hassle [bureaucracy etc] many do buy, reasoning ‘how difficult can it be, I come first and then the rest ..’
Basic traffic rules are ignored by many. Like here, right has priority, but getting it is something different…
At least this accident site,one can`t blame on authorities because of poor and even “criminal”piece of traffic engineering.i can`t blame on innocent drivers of their vehicles.they have to do in road limits……R I P ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
Wow. I guess you’re called cynical bastard because you’re the product of your mom being raped by some Russain dude named Ivan. I guess I would hate Russians as well in that case.
Well, take care and say hi to your mom for me sonny boy!
Hehe, my friend, I grew up in Russia, so I know the quality of drivеr ed (and the levels of respect for the law) first-hand. It’s not like anything ever changes there. Therefore - пошел нахуй, козоеб в сраку отпердоленый стадом диких кабанов.
In Russia too there is such rule, it sounds so: “a rule of three D, Daj Dorogu Duraku” let pass to the fool)))
Add traffic light. Fixed.
lol too true
not even going to discuss how ignorant that comment was from cynical. the only one that i agree on is poor engineering.
Agree.
He always tries to be a smart ass!
Dis le place for insurance fraudingz?
Wonders le Владимир
As far as I know Russians are not even remotely familiar with the concept of ‘yield’. People I know that have gone through the автошколы tell me that at no point is this most basic rule of motoring discussed.
When it comes to driving Russians know how to hit the gas and blow the horn, in that order.
Of course some better traffic engineering would help, but that would require asking for… and accepting non-Russian help, and a Russian will never, ever do that.
If you look, the crossroads is after some tunnel or bridge, from dark. So the cars that come straight are hard to notice.
Another reason might be that the flow of cars from under the bridge is constant.
Most of the accidents follow the same rule. Car coming from under the bridge and a left turn.
The real problem is they have not done something to change the design.
So we have witnessed a lot of accidents on the same spot, we are learning from this fact and we will be doing something about it shortly, right?
wery nice:]
An intersection engineered and built by idiots, plus drivers that have bought the car and the driving license’ but didn’t “buy” any driving skills or culture equals “bermuda triangle like this.
P.S. Traffic lights would help
I am an American tourist. I want to sit on a lawn chair with a bag of fatt- and corn syrup-laden food, and wait for the crunch of metal…
So where is this intersection?
Just opposite the presidential palace of Georgian president,Saakashvili! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
Traffic lights wouldn’t help since cars will stack up in the tunnel. A yield sign for the left turning cars could work.
Left-turners are supposed to yield regardless (unless clearly indicated otherwise). What makes you think they won’t happily ignore the sign, really?
All roads could do without yield or stop signs, they are just different levels of telling the drivers that “hey this might be an extra good time to look out”.
And then at least in Europe there are dangerous crossing warning signs which might be suitable.
Still anything works just as good as the drivers follow the signs.
Left-turners supposed to yield? Why? Where I live cars driving straigh from the left of the picture should be the ones to yield in this case, unless the cars turning left from the bottom have a ‘yield’ sign. If they dont have such a sign they should only yield for the cars coming from their right. Can’t really see if there is such a sign there, so dont know who is to blame.
nииииии
So how long has the intersection been in existence? How many accidents have occurred there? How many lives lost? (Most of the photos show fender-benders, but a front-end collision can cause death, especially if airbags are missing or faulty.)
So why has this gone unrepaired for so long? Certainly this can’t be the only intersection of its type in the world. The solution wouldn’t even have to be developed from scratch - just use some other city’s solution! Why not an overpass to move left-hand traffic directly onto its route?
I don’t understand why this situation continues when it is so obviously bad. What am I missing here? There must be a reason why. What is it? A cynic might say graft or kickbacks from the towing companies must be involved.
They need a set of lights.
There is enough space on this crossing to transform it into a roundabout (rotary). So let’s make it one and the traffic will flow nicely as in contrary to traffic lights which will stop the traffic and cause traffic jams.
I’m in Sweden and is does work out here.
Expat: yes, rondabouts are nice, but… in Sweden even riding a bike without lights on a motorway in complete darkness works nice, but I wouldn’t try that in other parts of “civilized” Europe, let alone Russia.
Sober up, my friend. If you are turning left (or right) from the blind road of a T-intersection, you yield to through traffic, at least where I live (and if in doubt - you yield, as well, but I imagine that Russians are not courteous enough for that). Fortunately, around here this is not a problem, as all important intersections are properly marked.
…on the other hand, just from the pavement markers, it is not obvious that left turn is even permitted (note dashed lane marker towards the left, but not towards the right). It is possible that drivers simply ignore the signage and get the fender-benders they deserve. Again, poor traffic design, disregard for the law and lack of culture and common courtesy.
“Another” point i realise,that so many years later Russians enjoy true independence from centrally controlled nice party system so they don`t wanna to obey any kind of law obligations.the “fear”(i mean hope)of returning of golden past is always haunted them! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !.there is no rocket science to correct that simple road engineering problem.these intersections may be build for the little traffic,but now a days traffic is far higher than expected.
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Cold. Dead. Fingers.
ill bet there is a dark angel near by
I wonder if there’s some subliminal suggestions going on here. After the first couple of accidents happened coincidentally, perhaps the “accident fact” was implanted in the other drivers’ thoughts and then they subconsciously “willed” themselves to have an accident. No hocus-pocus here, just a testament on how our thoughts usually control our lives.
notice how a majority of the collisions are between a foreign car (preferably expensive) and a russian car?
something we see a lot of (at least here in albania) is that the driver of the foreign car is:
1. CONNECTED
2. corrupt
3. MAFIYA
4. an ASSHOLE.
they think they can own the road because of the power of their car.
that being said. the people in albania who have fiat/lada/yugo etc. love to take it out on those with faster cars, making them wait behind them, making them stop suddenly… especially those with benz etc.
ironic. maybe the cause?
Why do Russians have so many BMWs, Merc, Audis when they can’t seem to find enough food to eat?
The moron who to you has told, what at Russian is not enough meal?! Or you yet have not finished cold war and how the fool you believe everything, what to you tells your government? Pull out a hamburger from a mouth, it spoils your brain and a figure.