Travelling in Ukraine - transport, traffic and roads
Ukraine is a large neighbouring country with more than 40 million inhabitants. A week in Odesa and the Bessarabia region allowed me to make some observations about the country's car fleet, driving habits, the state of the roads, the range of new cars on offer and how far electromobility has progressed. Here you will find my article about Odesa , and here my article about Lviv
On foot in Odesa
Traffic in Odesa is orderly - pedestrian crossings are equipped with signals. The traffic lights also show a countdown of how many seconds the "red" or "green" light will stay on. Where there are no lights, cars often give way to pedestrians. Only Derybasivska Street in the very centre of the city is closed to traffic and turned into a pedestrian promenade; on all the other streets cars are allowed.
Petrol stations in Ukraine
Where to fill up the car? In Odesa and in the provinces it will be no problem at all. There are a great many stations, although you will see very few bearing the logos of European companies. Of the "Western" ones, I saw only a single Shell. The stations can be divided into "Ukrainian", "Moldovan" and "Azerbaijani". The first are the most numerous, the second - the "Petromol" brand - often sell fuel at lower prices, but you cannot pay by card there. According to local drivers, the Azerbaijani brand "Socar" guarantees the highest quality, but its prices are usually the highest too. At the stations you do not fill up the car yourself: there is an attendant assigned to operate the pumps. A tip is welcome, but not all drivers follow this custom.
Roads in Odesa and in the provinces
The roads in Odesa are generally good, although the surface is often uneven, and in the old part of the city there are many old cobbled stretches. In the provinces it is much worse. Some roads are good, with a good surface and camber, but others are bad or even very bad. They have no proper hard shoulder, and every now and then you hit a stretch with huge potholes. Strangely, some of the roads marked on maps as main roads are almost impassable. This is the case with the P70, which local residents say looks as if it had been driven over by tanks.
Driving through Moldova
Near Odesa you can come across an unusual "road attraction": the road leading from this port city towards Romania runs through Moldovan territory for about 10 km. It essentially has extraterritorial status. When you leave Ukraine, soldiers often record the number of people in the car and the exact time of entry, so that a few minutes later they can check that the number of passengers matches when you re-enter the country and that you did not stop along the way, which is strictly forbidden.
Electric cars in Odesa
The first thing you see after landing at Odesa's modern airport is... a charging station for electric cars. The number of zero-emission vehicles in this Black Sea city is surprising. Opel Amperas, Teslas and BMW i3s are quite a common sight, but the ones that catch the eye most often are first-generation Nissan Leafs.
After that first impression, coming across a charger in the car park in front of the Odesa terminal, the charging infrastructure did not look so good. Walking around the city, I saw few chargers. Charging has to be done at home, from a socket. The old buildings of the city centre make this easier. There are no huge housing estates there, but low-rise town houses with large courtyards and plenty of garages. It is easy to leave a car charging overnight.
Marshrutkas and Uber
The "marshrutka" system is very popular in the city - there are huge numbers of these small yellow minibuses. They are often made by the Indian brand Tata, whose attempt to enter the Polish market ended in failure. How does the system work? An entrepreneur buys a licence for a particular route, the course of which is set by the city authorities. He then has to hire drivers and provide them with vehicles (they can also use their own minibuses). The fare - regardless of the length of the journey - is 7 hryvnias, almost exactly 1 złoty. Odesa residents - those who use their own cars every day - complain about the "marshrutkas", because their trademark is... not using bus stops. They stop anywhere, whether it is allowed or not. Convenient for passengers, but a danger to other traffic.
Uber works very well in Odesa; a ride across the city costs the equivalent of about 10 złoty.
New cars and red number plates
The car showrooms I saw in Odesa are very modern. Both the interiors and the whole layout of the surrounding grounds are impressive. Clean, consistently branded test cars are parked in front of the showrooms. It was surprising how closely they keep up with the latest trends and standards set by the brands: the Nissan showroom was branded in line with the corporate identity requirements that the brand had begun enforcing in Europe only a few months earlier.
The cars in front of the showrooms have red number plates. What the Polish motor industry fought for over many years has long been in place in Ukraine. Red number plates are transferable and used for test cars. When a car is sold, they are moved on to the next vehicle. Even when a customer asks for a test drive in a car from the showroom or from "stock", this is possible without going through the cumbersome registration and insurance procedure.
Youngtimers from the former USSR
Modern showrooms offering the latest cars are one thing, the reality on the streets is another. Cars that are a dozen or so years old dominate. Asian brands such as Hyundai, Toyota and Nissan are particularly visible. In the case of the latter, there are surprisingly many old Maximas with V6 engines, almost forgotten in Europe. I think that it is precisely these engines - once considered outstanding and often award-winning - that explain the popularity of these cars.
You see lots of cars from Soviet times: Ladas, Zhigulis, Volgas, and ZIL and GAZ vans and lorries are a common sight on the roads. Interestingly, I did not see a single Zaporozhets, even though this car was made in Ukraine. Nor are there any cars from other countries "behind the Iron Curtain": you will not see any Skodas, small Fiats, Zastavas, Polonezes, Dacias or Trabants.
