Driving in Moscow (Part 2) !

More on the amazing street scene of Moscow....

During the day the streets of Moscow are dominated by black Mercedes S class, Maybachs and AMG sedans with tinted windows so dark and opaque they must be against the law, a law that no one pays attention to. Mercedes’ cluster at ministry buildings, officials headquarters, and government affairs meetings. There is a saying that “Moscow Never Sleeps” (there is even a very popular dance music song with that title by DJ Smash) – and at night the Mercedes go to sleep and the Audis, BMWs and Porsches come out to play. You have never seem so many Audi RS6, R5 & R8’s, Porsche Cayenne Turbo S’s, and BMW M5’s in your life as you will in one weekend here in Moscow. Near spiritual experience for automobile lovers. Each nightclub and bar worth their weight in vodka has a minimum of one dozen of these beauties (must be black or dark grey) parked right out front.

Night traffic around the Kremlin and City center has a kind of centrifugal force that catapults cars onto speeds no police car can match, and (and this is a big if) even if a driver is caught, he simply bribes the police on the spot. It's kind of like sport fishing: catch and release.

This however, only applies to the regular folk who don’t have “privileged license plates”. Bureaucrats, police, politicians, KGB folk, diplomats, et al are privy to specially designated license plates and special blue lights that allow them to speed, break traffic rules, and use the center turning lane on the major thoroughfares in order to zip past the traffic and hurry to affairs of state.. This special suicide feature of several Russian avenues and highways is a middle lane that runs in both directions. Who needs a landscaped median (I’ve seen VERY few landscaped medians – although most boulevards are landscaped quite nicely on both sides) when you can have an “expediting lane” ?!?! These blue lights and official plates can also be had for a price; the going market rate is US $50,000.00 (see photo) which sounds pretty steep but as you might imagine compared to the price of a $600,000 Mercedes Maybach this is only like an “upgrade” option, and as such every other joe millionaire has got himself and his entourage one. Traffic police are required by law to “facilitate driving for vehicles with these pecial state license plates”. This mandate has backed down a bit from a few years ago, but the people basically don’t pull anyone with these special plates over.

For instance Russia’s police force and comrades use the series of KR-177RUS license plates, and the senators and congressman and their henchmen use series AMM-99RUS plates. Cars with these plates were not allowed to be stopped or searched, and are often seen screaming along at 200 kmh (130 mph) on the highways outside of town in the special center lane. It is actually not unusual to see two separate motorcades speeding toward each other in a Russian version of chicken. We saw a good number of these type of motorcades during Obama’s trip here last week – every other car seemingly had the special plates and blue light.

It’s not just the big black $200,000 sedans and SUV’s that add a unique element to the Moscow street scene - unsanctioned and illegal motrcycle and street car racing is also a popular sport at night near Moscow University in the Sparrow Hills overlooking the City. Races vary from a hundred meters to a circuit of the city's Garden Ring round, where bikes reach upwards of 110-120 miles an hour. Car racing also takes places, although to a lesser extent (probably because it's much easier to lose the police on your race bike with no license plates than it would be on your car). The racers speed in and out of Ring road traffic at three times the speed limit (all trying to beat the 6 minute record around the garden ring road).

Who is in charge? Where are the police in all this madness is one of the first things that passes through a western visitors mind upon seeing the francas in the sparrow hills at night. The answer is really simple - it just totally out of their control. This is a very refined yet very wild city.