What I came to realize later was that many of the things I once considered unique to Russian city life were simply urban, European norms. European cities are denser than their American counterparts. Europe's largest urban areas grew slowly over centuries, whereas America's grew much more rapidly since the 1800's, and grew explosively (in area) once the automobile became common. For nearly a century, American cities have been built to accomodate the automobile. Not so much in Europe. In Russia, prior to its Soviet-led industrialization and urbanization in the 20th century, some 90% of the population were still living on farms in 1917. Few Russians had private cars prior to the fall if the USSR in 1991, so their cities are based on the denser, European model.
In addition to the above-mentioned transportation options, Russian cities are laced with other transport networks as well, including:
- Trams ("tramvai", running on fixed rails, sharing streets with cars)
- Subways (more on this later)
- Electric-powered commuter trains ("elektrichka")
- Inter-City Trains ("poyezd")
- and in some cities, networks of Water Taxis and Hydrofoils ("Rokyeta") serving fixed routes.
Poking around the official Moscow Metro site the other day, I happened across a fantastic map that allows you to select beginning and ending points for your journey, and will display the time required for your trip. The map also displays details on each station when you click on the station name. Give it a try here.
It's intuitive, informative, and highly useful (though I might suggest they add street maps of the neighborhoods surrounding each station, which the DC Metro site DOES include). I would love to see DC's Metro use the Moscow site as a model for their own trip planner, which is useful but in my opinion not as intutive - a picture is worth a thousand words, after all. Enjoy!
"Careful! Doors Closing. Next Stop: Revolution Square."
