The role of the traffic system in interconnecting the urban space of Tyumen in mid 1950-1960-s

In the mid 1950-60s a number of natural and artificial obstacles divided Tyumen into a few isolated parts. Thus, urban space just seemed to be relatively integral. Such a situation gave rise to the activities meant to improve the population’s capabilities to move around and interact freely within the city boarders. Unification of the disconnected city parts became possible due to the dynamic road construction. During the period of 1956-1965 the stretch of city roads grew by 1/3 (from 227 km to 331,5 km), the length of hard-surface streets also increased. The level of improvement of city streets significantly increased. The development of the road network created conditions for the unification of separate regions (districts) and overcome barriers, separating the urban space. At the same time, a large number of problems concerning the Tyumen roads, was never solved. The condition of the road network in the outskirts of the city differed significantly from the quality of the roads of the central part of Tyumen that testified about the lack of unity and fragmentation of urban space. The pollution of Tyumen streets had a negative impact on the image of the city. Road network development made transport more important. Buses became even more habitual in the city. The number of bus routes grew from 7 to 26 in 1956-1965. They connected not only the main city districts and key industrial enterprises; bus network also covered almost all the territory of the city. However, the public transport system had a lot of drawbacks. Bus traffic was not regular, the routes were not convenient. Besides there was the lack of buses and they were not comfortable. Citizens could avoid these drawbacks using city taxi service. This kind of transport became more popular by the mid 60-s. This fact might be proved by the rapid increase of the number of taxi cabs (from 45 cars in 1956 to 319 cars in 1966). The taxi company, which consisted in the mid-1950s car «Pobeda», was completely replaced by a more comfortable «Volga». Such a situation was caused by the expansion of the city area, and it indicated the change in the citizens’ mindset. Time became one of the priorities of the city life. There appeared more private transport in the streets of the regional center. A new category of citizens emerged in Tyumen, so called «motorists». This fact proved the spread of «urban culture». The spread of private cars caused a number of new problems within the urban space. In the mid 60-s Tyumen faced a new dilemma of the city area: comfort and safety for people vs. convenience for cars. The city tried to find the best solution of this problem during the subsequent decades. The rapid expansion of the city and the population growth was conserved the fragmentation of the urban space. Differences in the development of the central part of Tyumen and its suburbs gradually begin to fade only in subsequent years.

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