As I reached the end of ul. Trombity this morning, I came across this dreadful sight - a half-kilometre jam stretching all the way down Kórnicka from Trombity to ul. Baletowa. I knew that paving over this dirt track would turn an entirely ignored rural byway, once known only to Jeziorki locals, into a rat-run used by those out-of-towners seeking an alternative to ul. Puławska. Never did I imagine it could get this bad. It took five minutes to get from ul. Trombity (from where this photo was taken) to ul. Baletowa (at the top of the picture).And in their desperate attempts to jump a few cars ahead at this traffic jam, some frustrated drivers race down MY road (at double the speed limit which is 30 km/h or 20 mph), trying to overtake other cars between the speed bumps.
THIS AGGRESSION WILL NOT STAND.
What's the answer? Traffic lights at the end of Kórnicka? They'll change from red to green all day long, despite the fact that this route is only used in the morning rush hour. No sense in installing lights for an hour a day. No room (old houses) to build a roundabout at the junction of ul. Kórnicka and Baletowa. Maybe a manned barrier at the south end of Trombity...
Guard: Where is Sir from?
Me: I live on ul. Trombity.
Guard: Where is Sir heading?
Me: Platan Park, top end of ul. Poloneza. 100% local.
Guard (raising barrier, saluting smartly): Sir may pass.
Guard: Where is Sir from?
Driver: I'm from Piaseczno.
Guard: Where is Sir heading?
Driver: The very centre of Warsaw.
Guard: Sir will have to turn around and go back the way Sir came.
This of course is unfeasible in a democracy. More sensible is for PKP to put on more trains from Piaseczno to Warsaw. The journey (which takes and hour and half by car, two hours by bus) takes a mere 35 minutes by train. But there are only four trains to town during the morning peak. Putting on ten or 15 trains, and building a Park and Ride facility would help diffuse the morning mayhem on the back roads between Piaseczno and Warsaw.
Another solution: The same scene (below), 25 and half hours later. Leave home at 09:30, journey to centre of Warsaw takes 45 mins not hour and half. Leave office at 19:00, journey home also significantly shorter.
Hello. What is the social attitude to commuting by rail in Warsaw? Do young and upwardly mobile professionals, driving their shiny Lexus, or even Opel or Skoda, and thereby causing the traffic jams, think that it is socially acceptable to travel by train. Or is it social death?
ReplyDeleteDo important business people and civil servants in Warsaw, ie the kind of people that have the connections and clout to persuade govt to invset in rail, travel by train? Or do they think that trains are for students, schoolchildren ,pensioners and peasants.
That is the situation in Vilnius, Lithuania. Eg, a new rail link has been built to airport (more accurately, an uncovered platfrom with a lift has been built beside a railway line coincedentally running beside the airport, and a once coach PESA railbus will make the seven minutre journey once an hour.
The Mayor of Vlinius said at the opening. ¨This is great, I will ride on the train on Saturday when I take my grandchildren to look at the planes.¨ He did not say, ¨I will leave my car and driver at the town hall and take the train to the airport the next time I go on a foreign trip [at taxpayers' expense.]¨
For many in Eastern Europe, travelling by train, and all public transport, are social death.
This attitude has to be overcome before the traffic jams will start to subside.
I think the issue will become so bad that it will hold back the development of Warsaw and the whole economy.
ReplyDeleteJust back from Glasgow where they are extending another motorway M74 through the City Centre and linking up motorways going east to west and north to south. Seems so easy as this take all the commercial traffic off our roads. This combined with victorian era investment in building suburban railways wich when Strathclyde Transport are not on strike means that you are in the city centre from the suburbs in 20 minutes.
In the meantime Warsaw raods are slow, badly built, dangerously set up and are filled by bad cars and maniac drivers.
Should middle class expats put up with this or should we go home?.Not an easy question - whilst the moneys good and the bills are paid we stay - do I want to live out my retirement in this caos? Hell no.
Of course, traffic lights won't change the situation. Last spring, two new traffic lights have been installed in Wałbrzyska street, near Dominican Convent. Now, this is "road to hell" in the morning rush hour.
ReplyDeleteSiemens has installed new "system zarządzania ruchem" in Warsaw one year ago, but it doesn't work - now, it's "system korkowania miasta".
I think, only "Trasa N-S" could change that situation, but yet Jeziorki will lose rural character :(
News -
ReplyDeleteThanks for your perspective from Vilnius. Same situation here - Mr and Mrs Average Polish Middle Class Car User would rather be caught rummaging through their neighbours' dustbin than to be seen using public transport. There is one exception - the Warsaw Metro. Clean, fast, punctual, no grafitti - you'd be nuts to drive from Kabaty or Młociny in to town when you have an excellent (one-line) Metro 'system'. Warsaw Metro is socially as upscale as you'll get in Poland.
David -
ReplyDeleteRetire in Warsaw? Whatever for? Warsaw (for demographic reasons) is a young, hip and swinging capital city for YUPPIES and DINKYS. Have children - move to edge of town and face traffic chaos. Children leave home, you retire - leave Warsaw altogether. Build yourself something beautiful on the edge of the Białowieża forest or something. Warsaw's no country for old men.
KG -
ReplyDeleteSiemens' traffic management system (so taxi drivers tell me) is meant to learn traffic flow patterns and so improve over time. We shall see!
Trasa N-S will be built on the other side of the tracks from Jeziorki, so will help take traffic away from us. When it's built. In five years time.
Your last solution is really the only one likely to keep you sane and is one I employ quite often myself albeit from a different direction.
ReplyDeleteMichael, I think you go too far with your attempt to put every one in "Osóbki". Looka at the plates of cars queing on Kórnicka and Puławska - MANY of them are from Grójec, Radom, Kozienice, Białobrzegi, Kielce even - those cars go Kraków-Warszawa road, turn right in Magdalenka and then go through Zgorzała and Nawłocka and Trombity, you know rest of their route. Because they don't want to wait on Al. Krakowska to get to the city centre or wherever they go.
ReplyDeleteOthers go to Ursynów to drop children at school and then go to work in the city centre. You and your wife do it too, I have seen your famous yellow-plate Micra on Trombity many times. How can you get to Ursynów on "osóbki"?
Or maybe you want to say Trombity is YOUR street? A gate at your end of trombity won't help - see how many cars pass through Nawłocka.
All the best,
Well, neighbour, it takes several solutions to diffuse the problem. My wife now leaves her car in Ursynów and takes the metro. I try to avoid driving whenever I can (in summer, when school's out, I've been cycling). More trains on the Radom line would be an answer (and being able to use a ZTM city travel card rather than to buy tickets on the train would help).
ReplyDeleteMichael
Michael
ReplyDeleteThat's the answer to your postulate:
http://miasta.gazeta.pl/warszawa/1,95190,6027967,Plusy_i_minusy_nowego_rozkladu_kolei.html
Is it possible to iron out the problem with traffic?