Road transport
Roads in Ukraine is a network of roads for public use, for official use, for private use, and streets with city roads. There are three types of roads national, local, and streets. Each type has additional classifications. High-speed highways such as motorways or freeways are rare and only available on selected segments of major routes.
The whole network of all automobile roads (highways) consists of some 172,400 km (107,100 mi) out which 164,100 km (102,000 mi) - have hard surface or 95.19%. The existing road network was mostly built in 1960's - 1970's. For comparison in 1940 the highway network of Ukraine consisted of 270,700 kilometers which only 10.8% contained a paved surface.
After the fall of the Soviet Union at the end of 1991 all road service state organizations within Ukraine were reorganized. The highway numbering system was changed as well by late 1990s. Today more and more cities install their own beltways or ringways to improve their traffic conditions.
Classifications
Ukraine has its own network of highway that were inherited from the Ukrainian SSR and were part of the Soviet network of highways. The network consists 99% of roads for public use with 12% assigned as of state importance and 87% - local importance.
Automagistrals
n Ukraine high-speed divided highways or motorways are called automagistrals which is a generic Russian-type term for high-speed road. Currently automagistrals are not designated into a separate network and are part of national level of expressway network.
Marshrutka is a form of public transportation such as a share taxi for the countries of CIS, the Baltic states, Bulgaria, Georgia and Ukraine. The role of the modern marshrutka is theoretically similar to the share taxi, that use minibuses in other countries except that all implementations of marshrutka do allow standing capacity.
They can be small, medium-sized, and sometimes big, with higher fare (price) than in ordinary municipal buses, and the main thing: with less obligations to carry invalids, pensionaries etc. for free, than ordinary buses. And this is the reason why there are much more marshrutkas in the city than ordinary buses. The word "taxi" is needed just to answer the question why they have no as much free-ride obligations, as ordinary buses, which are usually "full of free riders", are unprofitable and bring economical loss. Interesting fact: in 1990s when local authorities temporarily lost their ability to finance city bus work, the bus drivers just installed in their buses windows tablets with inscription "Taxomotor" and that just meant that every passenger has to pay the fare.
So, now marshrutkas are public route microbuses, middle-size buses and sometimes big buses which go usually faster then ordinary buses and more frequently, but don't take month abonent tickets and take not more then one free passenger per one marshrutka. Stopping marshrutka in the city out of established stops comes out of practice, being unreasonable because of large amount of passengers and high frequency of the stops.
Cycling in Ukraine
Groups of cycletourists are no uncommon sight on Ukraine's roads. Solo cyclists create more surprise. During the Soviet period Crimea was a highly popular spring destination for cycleclubs. Cycletourists especially those covering serious distances, are regarded as sportsmen with all the respect usually attached to them.
Priorities for development of road infrastructure:
development of road system through
prioritizing the development of national public roads, first of all under the projects for preparing the roads to the final part of EURO 2012
building, rehabilitating, and carrying out capital repairs of such roads as Kyiv – Chernihiv – Novy Yarylovychi, Kyiv – Kharkiv – Dovzhansky, Znamianka – Luhansk – Izvaryne, Kyiv – Odesa, Kyiv – Chop, Kyiv – Kovel – Yagodyn, Stryi – Ternopil, Kirovograd – Znamianka, Ulianivka – Mykolaiv, Kharkiv – Simpheropil – Yalta, Kharkiv – Scherbakivka, Kherson – Simpheropil, Lviv – Krakovets, Vinnytsia – Kyiv, Big Ring Road around Kyiv, the Black Sea Bypass
implementing actions to increase the financial support for the road infrastructure
building approach roads with hard covering to all rural settlements
enhancement of innovative component in the road infrastructure development projects through
applying up-to-date materials and innovative technologies for building, rehabilitating, repairing and maintaining the roads
re-equipping the technical base of road enterprises
improvement of road traffic safety rate through
implementing road traffic safety actions on particularly dangerous stretches of roads
introducing efficient road traffic technical devices on roads (automated road traffic operation systems, antidazzle screens, markings with improved reflective properties, etc.)
improving the information support for road traffic participants
reforming of public road state governance system through
combining properly the centralized administration of national public road network and the regional administration of local roads
providing the proper funds for construction, rehabilitation, and repairs of national and local public roads
restructuring the State Joint Stock Company ROADS OF UKRAINE OJSC
establishing a road operation system based on geoinformation technologies
improving the quality assurance system for construction, repairs, and maintenance works on roads by the set-up of the State Road Inspection
sustainable construction and maintenance of roads through
applying environmentally friendly and energy saving materials and innovative technologies
introducing technical means for mitigating the adverse impact of roads on the environment (noise protective screens, water treatment facilities, animal passages, fencing, etc.)
