Driving in Moscow (the Taxi Rides)

I have a new found respect for Moscow taxi drivers. Drivers in general in Russia are a bit on the wild side. But the taxi rides I took were precise surgeries getting from point A to point B. I’ve learned that those lines in the road separating the lanes aren’t really that. They are just a guideline or merely a suggestion… When you see a hole in traffic that your car can fit through (and sometimes not) you go for it. They drive with such precision going around other cars and weaving in and out of traffic that it can only be that of a trained professional. There does not seem to be any speed limit as we passed several police vehicles at a high rate of speed. In fact I didn’t see one accident or smashed car while I was there.

Russian Taxi

When catching a taxi from the airport, you have to be firm in your negotiating. They will take all they think they can get out of you. Lena was pretty good at this. We had the guy following us through the airport and finally he decided to drop the price as we were looking elsewhere. They want the money, but they just want as much as possible. Oh, and be sure you have correct change for the driver. They get a little grumpy if they have to get out and get change.

View from our apartment window

On a totally separate note, an observation I made was that there are more foreign cars driving in Moscow than Russian cars. Although I do understand that some of those foreign cars are actually produced within Russia. But still I would think that there would be more of the Russian brands driving on the streets. I walked down the street and at one point, there were 9 out of 10 cars parked that were USA, Japanese or German brands. Wow! That tells me there must be a lot of money being made in Moscow.

We saw Putin drive down the street. The streets had been completely cleared by the police and blocked off and his big long black Mercedes Benz went flying down the street with his escort cars. Interesting…