No matter what your strategy for flying safely to and within Russia, at some point you will be faced with another safety dilemma: driving in Russia. I thought I'd take two posts to talk about some of the current issues in Russian road safety and five things you can do to stay safe while traveling by car.

As Russia's economy has ballooned, so has the car and truck traffic on its roads. The traffic jams on Moscow's ring roads can make the notoriously clogged I-5 in southern California look as zippy as Daytona. I thought my driver in Moscow was allowing a ridiculous amount of time to get out to Sheremetyevo Airport, but when I saw how slowly traffic was moving, I understood his concerns.

Though you will probably be astounded at the number of Hummers and Escalades on the roads in Russia's main cities, the country still has fewer cars per inhabitant than other developed and developing countries. According to the Russian Ministry of the Interior, there were 223 cars per 1,000 citizens in 2003, which seem to be the most recent statistic available. The Ministry noted that that ratio is two to three times lower than in Europe and North America, but it is also1.5 times lower than in Bulgaria, Hungary and Poland. The Ministry estimates that Russian car ownership will top out at 550 cars per 1,000 citizens by 2025.

Trouble is, driving accidents have also grown apace. The Ministry of the Interior recently conceded that the risk of road traffic fatalities is much higher in Russia than in the developed world. It put the fatality rate at 20 people per 100,000 residents every year. (I couldn't find any stats on the overall accident rate.)

There are a host of reasons for the high fatality rate. Road maintenance, especially outside the big cities, simply hasn't kept up with the increased traffic and harsh weather. There's a video circulating on the Internet of a series of collisions in Moscow's Lefortovo tunnel. Apparently the river that runs above it leaks water into the tunnel, which then freezes.

Alcohol also certainly plays a factor, as does poor to non-existent enforcement of traffic safety rules. Now, however, Russia's legislature, the Duma, is in the midst of pushing through stiffer penalties for traffic violations. I found a survey that indicates many Russians think bigger fines will help. But only time will tell if everyone will take the new rules to heart.