The peak of journeys on Avtodor State Company toll roads occurred on 30 April and 1 May – more than 175,000 cars left Moscow.
On M-11 Neva Highway, traffic volumes were consistently high throughout the pre-holiday and holiday period in May.
As on other highways of the State Company, a wave of departures from the Moscow Region was recorded on M-11 on 30 April and 1 May. On 30 April, traffic was 2.3 times higher than usually, while on 1 May, it was already 3 times higher. The motorists were mostly returning on 10 May, on that day, the traffic was twice as high as usual.
This year, a large flow of cars was also recorded on the route from St. Petersburg to Moscow. From 30 April to 4 May 2021, traffic was 1.5 times higher than similar days in 2019, and on average, 2 times higher than usual.
The extended May holidays have contributed to an increase in travel to southern Russia. On 1 May, 51,114 passenger cars travelled along M-4 Don (from Moscow), which is 3 times the normal flow.
More than half of motorists have used transponders this year, this figure is 10% higher than the last year.
On the peak day of 1 May, southbound transit traffic at sites in the Voronezh Region was 30 % higher than on the peak day in 2019.
On the new transit section bypassing the villages of Losevo and the town of Pavlovsk in Voronezh Region, commissioned in July 2020, traffic flow towards the southern regions began to increase significantly as early as Thursday 29 April.
On Friday, 30 April, the flow was already three times higher. And on 1 May, the peak day, the flow increased almost fivefold compared to a usual day. By 4 May, traffic to the south began to decrease.
In the opposite direction from the southern regions of Russia, motorists drove along M-4 as early as 8 May, with peak traffic on 9 May (4 times higher). On 10 May, traffic was 3 times higher than on usual days.
Motorists travelling to the Black Sea from the Baltic chose to travel via the Central Ring Road (CRR) - linking M-11 Neva and M-4 Don - bypassing Moscow's congested roads and saving considerable time on the journey.
Another feature of the May holidays was that the hauliers did not interrupt their work, and the traditional redistribution of traffic flows (replacing trucks with cars) did not take place.
