As of 2006 Russia had 933,000 km of roads, of which 755,000 were paved. Some of these make up the
Russian federal motorway system. With a large land area the road density is the lowest of all the
G8 and
BRIC countries as of 2009. The state of Russia's road system ranks 136th out of 144 countries evaluated.
Rustam Minnikhanov, the president of Tatarstan and head of the State Council working group on roads, told the Novosibirsk meeting that 53 percent of federal highways and 63 percent of regional ones are substandard and that the situation is growing worse: Every year, the number of cars in Russia rises by six percent, but the highway system expands only 2200 kilometers. The Kremlin leader blamed this on corruption, the lack of oversight, and the failure to update standards set 30 years ago. According to the
Russian Federal State Statistics Service the road network expanded by 504,000 kilometers between 2003 and 2015, though this is largely due to the registration of previously ownerless roads.
Road safety Traffic-related death rate was 10.6 per 100,000 inhabitants which was
higher than in most of other European countries or in the United States. Increasingly harsher penalties for traffic violations were imposed after 2008, but the level of corruption among traffic law enforcement authorities limits their effectiveness in reducing the number of accidents.
Dashcams are widespread, inasmuch as Russian courts prefer video evidence to
eyewitness testimony, but also as a guard against
police corruption and
insurance fraud.
Fleet road in
St. Petersburg railway station's parking lot during winter buses are the most common city buses in Russia After
World War II, trucks and buses were manufactured for the socialist countries of Eastern Europe:
Ikarus urban, intercity and tourist buses, Skoda buses and trucks,
Industriewerke Ludwigsfelde and
Robur trucks,
Tatra,
LIAZ,
Praga V3S,
Csepel,
Avia and
ZSD Nysa passenger vans and
Zuk cargo vans). During the late 1950s
OAF trucks were imported from the West, and
Berliet T60 dump trucks were imported in 1969 to open the mine and ore-processing plant of Ai in the
Orenburg Oblast. Tractors from
Volvo and
Mercedes-Benz NG were imported during the 1970s for the road-transport organization Sovtransavto.
Unic-Fiat tractors were imported in the mid-1970s for the port of
Leningrad, and
Unit Rig and
International Harvester Paystar dump trucks and cement mixers were used for the construction of irrigation canals from 1979 to 1983. Fawn
ballast tractors were imported from 1970 to the 1980s, and
Komatsu dump trucks began to be imported in 1979.
Magirus bonneted flatbed trucks and dump trucks were used in 1975 for the construction of the
Baikal–Amur Mainline (BAM). By the
1980 Summer Olympics in
Moscow, priority was given to smaller cars (such as the
Mercedes-Benz S-Class W116) as police cars, taxis and vans. However, most vehicles were Soviet-made cars:
Moskvitch,
GAZ-M20 Pobeda,
GAZ,
ZiL,
VAZ,
Izh and
ZAZ automobiles,
UAZ and
LuAZ jeeps,
RAF and
ErAZ vans,
GAZ,
Kamaz,
ZiL,
MAZ,
KrAZ,
UralAZ,
BelAZ and
KAZ (Colkhides) trucks,
KAvZ,
PAZ,
LiAZ and
LAZ buses and
ZiU trolleybuses. In 1988, the free sale of trucks and buses was permitted. Since the 1990s, many new and used cars have been imported. During the 2000s, foreign companies began to build factories in Russia or enter into agreements with existing assembly plants. Currently,
European and
Asian parts of Russia have different fleets. European Russia primarily contains Russian, European, Japanese, American, and Chinese cars and trucks; the Asian side contains used vehicles from the
Japanese domestic market, concentrated in
Vladivostok. The largest share of Russian auto brands is in the
North Caucasus regions of
Dagestan and
Chechnya.
GAZelle marshrutkas and
Ford Transit,
Peugeot Boxer,
Fiat Ducato,
Renault Master,
Iveco Daily,
Mercedes-Benz Sprinter and
Volkswagen Crafter vans and Russian (
PAZ), Ukrainian (
Bogdan, South Korean (
Hyundai County) and Chinese (
BAW) minibuses, painted in one color, are used as
share taxis. City buses are primarily the Russian (
PAZ,
KAvZ,
LiAZ,
MARZ,
NefAZ,
Volzhanin) and Belarusian
MAZ. European buses are used in Vladivostok (51
MAN A78 Lion's City LE buses, Moscow (one
Mercedes-Benz Turk O345 Connecto LF, four
Ikarus 435, 71
Scania OmniLink assembled in Russia and one
MAN A23 Lion's City GL), Kolomna (16
Mercedes-Benz Turk O345 Connecto H and one Mercedes-Benz Türk O345 Conecto LF) and St. Petersburg (16
MAN Lion's Classic and 52 buses
Scania OmniLink buses). Other cities run new Chinese and used German, Swedish, Finnish, and Dutch buses. In July 2014, Prime Minister
Dmitry Medvedev issued a decree banning foreign technical purchases (including public transport) for state and municipal needs. Intercity buses are Chinese, Korean, and Russian and large companies are buying European buses.
Grey market vehicles, such as the
Ford Mustang,
Lincoln Town Car,
Ford F-Series,
Dodge Viper,
Toyota Sienna,
Toyota 4Runner,
Acura,
Toyota Highlander,
Toyota Venza,
Infiniti,
Chevrolet Corvette and
Chevrolet Camaro, are sold by special dealers. Grey-market US trucks include
Freightliner,
International,
Peterbilt and
Volvo. In late 2013 International began selling a Russian version of the
International ProStar tractor, and sales of
Western Star 6900XD dump trucks were scheduled to begin in 2014. According to the
Russian Federal State Statistics Service, in 2013 the number of individually-owned cars per 1,000 of population was 304.1 in the
Ural Federal District, 312.6 in
Sverdlovsk Oblast, 202.5 in the
North-West Federal District, 345.3 in
Pskov oblast, 298.5 in the
Far Eastern Federal District, 484.8 in
Kamchatka Krai, 284.6 in the
Central Federal District, 340.5 in the
Belgorod Oblast, 274.3 in the
Southern Federal District (289.5 in
Krasnodar Krai), 261.8 in the
Siberian Federal District (292.5 in the
Republic of Khakassia and
Novosibirsk Oblast), 258 in the
Volga Federal District (298.1 in
Orenburg Oblast) and 197 in the
North Caucasian Federal District (267.2 in
Stavropol Krai). The regions with the greatest car ownership are
Kamchatka Krai in Asiatic Russia (484.8) and
Belgorod Oblast in European Russia (340.5). Those with the least are
Chukotka Autonomous Okrug in Asiatic Russia (73.1) and the
Republic of Ingushetia in European Russia (130.0). ==Waterways==