On the Day of Knowledge, residents of Almaty were pleasantly surprised by the absence of the usual traffic jams. Typically, September 1 is accompanied by a large number of cars and, as a result, multi-hour traffic jams, reports a correspondent of infohub.kz.
The day before, the Almaty city administration recommended that companies transfer some employees to remote work, setting an example by promising to do the same for its own staff. Earlier, drivers were advised to give up personal cars in favor of public transport. It is unclear what exactly played a decisive role: whether some residents actually switched to online mode, switched to buses, or left much earlier, but citizens note that there are practically no traffic jams on the roads.
Data from the 2GIS service confirms this: at 8:30 a.m., the congestion level was 6 points, half an hour later it dropped to 5, then to 4, and by 10:00 a.m. it reached 3 points, a rarity for Almaty.
Social media users share their observations. One resident wrote: "I don't understand, where are the traffic jams? Or did everyone leave at 6 a.m. and sit near schools? Well, they did the right thing by holding assemblies only for grades 1, 4, and 11. Will there be traffic jams tomorrow for September 1? I left at 6:50 and got to my destination in an hour, 20 minutes before opening, sitting and drinking coffee."
Another user noted: "Almaty!!! What a horror, where is the traffic jam? I got to work an hour early!"
Many commenters also did not notice any congestion on the streets. Among the comments: "It seems no one went to the assembly today, there really were no cars in the morning," "Yes, it was fine in the morning, we apparently made it before," "I sent my child to school early. He arrived 40 minutes before the assembly. What was that?", "Indeed, it's as if everyone left their cars at home," "Where are the traffic jams? I wanted to complain."
However, some suggest that the congestion has simply been "postponed" to tomorrow, September 2.