Expressed by the new motto, ‘Moscow is Moving’, the Russian capital is headed toward a brighter future. Over the past year, Moscow has made incredible strides improving transport, the cycling environment, and urban life for residents. The city has expanded bike lanes, completed its first full year with bike share, improved parking management, addressed metro quality, and added dedicated bus lanes – a truly holistic approach to transportation. The results have been clear: user surveys show happier residents, congestion ratings are dropping, and the city is growing a new culture of mobility.

Moscow’s biking environment has seen massive improvement in recent years. In 2015, nearly one million bike share rides were completed as the system expanded to 300 stations and 4,500 bikes. The bike share system has been complemented by 200 kilometers of new protected bike lanes, as well as new bike parking stations allowing space for 20,000 bikes. The city has taken care to build biking into an important part of Moscow’s transport infrastructure, contributing toward a culture shift away from cars.

Moscow has stepped up enforcement of its on-street parking, better regulating spaces and using the money from parking to fund road repairs and public space improvements. Covering over 44,000 spaces, the new parking system makes payment easier by offering prepaid, metered, or smartphone payment options. Increased monitoring and enforcement have led to a 64% decrease in illegal parking incidents.

Rounding out Moscow’s improvements are expansions of the Metro system and dedicated bus lanes. The Moscow Metro is continuing to make progress on its ambitious 2011 plan to expand, adding 4.8km of new track and four new stations. By 2020, the system will have added 160km and 78 stations, expanding mass transit access for millions of residents. In 2015, Moscow added 20km of separated bus lanes, bringing the city-wide total up to 219km. These lanes are increased bus speeds by 13%, and serving over 1.4 million riders daily.

Moscow is changing. With a wide range of projects underway, the city is making it safer, easier, and more comfortable for residents to avoid their cars and pick alterative options. As an iconic global city, the changes Moscow makes send a powerful message across the region and the world that investing in transit yields significant benefits, and helps keep the city moving forward.

RSVP For the 2016 Sustainable Transport Award, January 12, 2016 in Washington D.C.

###

Started in 2005, the STA has been given annually to a city that has implemented innovative and sustainable transportation projects in the past year. These strategies must improve mobility for all residents, reduce transportation greenhouse and air pollution emissions, as well as improve safety and access for cyclists and pedestrians.

The 2016 finalists will be honored at a reception at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center on January 12, 2015, during the Transport Research Board annual conference in Washington, DC. If you would like to attend the STA ceremony, click here to RSVP.

Past winners of the Sustainable Transport Award include: Belo Horizonte, Rio de Janeiro, and Sao Paulo, Brazil (2015); Buenos Aires, Argentina (2014) Mexico City, Mexico (2013); Medellin, Colombia and San Francisco, United States (2012); Guangzhou, China (2011); Ahmedabad, India (2010); New York City, USA (2009); London, UK (2008); Paris, France (2008); Guayaquil, Ecuador (2007); Seoul, South Korea (2006), and Bogotá, Colombia (2005).