In 2023, the total number of trips down all the highways under the Russian Highways State Company surpassed 285 million. This is 17.9% more than in 2022. Among other things, the growing popularity of the Russian Highways routes among motorists is due to the record-holding numbers of new road sections opened in the past year, totalling over 800 kilometers.
Among them is the M-12 Vostok, built as part of the national project “Upgrading of Transport Infrastructure”. In September 2023, the route was opened all the way down from Moscow to Arzamas, and in December, to Kazan. Also, the rise in traffic is caused by the launch of the new sections of the M-4 Don highway — bypasses of Rostov-on-Don and Krasnodar — at the beginning of the 2023 holiday season.
The largest number of trips – almost 145 million – is recorded down the M-4 Don highway, which is 12% higher than the 2022 figures. A significant surge in traffic is also observed at the Central Ring Road (TsKAD) in the Moscow region. In 2023, motorists made over 80 million trips along the Central Ring Road compared to 71 million in 2022.
On the M-1 Belarus section, from the 33 to the 66 km in the Moscow region, 10.2 million trips were made (+13%). On the M-11 Neva, from Solnechnogorsk to St. Petersburg, 21.4 million trips were registered (+2.1%).
The highest daily traffic was recorded at the section of the M-4 Don highway in the Moscow region. Last summer, on each of the weekends of August 12 and 19, almost 80 thousand trips were registered at the M-4 Don in the Moscow region. Second place is taken by the Moscow region section of the M-1 Belarus — on 20 August 2023, 58 thousand trips were made along it. It is followed by the M-12 Vostok section, bypassing Balashikha — on 24 September 2023, more than 42 thousand passages were recorded over there.
In 2024, the Russian Highways State Company plans to launch traffic along the extension of the M-12 Vostok to Yekaterinburg down the Dyurtyuli-Achit section, along the Malye Vyazemy Bypass on the Central Ring Road, as well as along the entire length of the Northern Tver Bypass down the M-11 Neva .
