Moscow is proposing to introduce congestion charging for passenger cars to try to encourage commuters to use public transport, according to the city authority.
No details of the likely cost have yet been announced; a similar – and successful – scheme in London costs those who venture into the congestion zone £8 (US$12.50) a day.
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Moscow is ranked fourth behind Beijing, Mexico and Johannesburg in a list of worst commuter cities compiled by IBM earlier this year.
The average reported traffic delay in the capital is 2.5 hours according to the study, which polled thousands of drivers around the world.
Failure to handle Moscow’s congestion, which traffic police estimate to cost about 40bn rubles (US$1.3bn) annually, has been one of the main criticisms of former mayor Yury Luzhkov, who was sacked by President Dmitry Medvedev last month.
Cars parked on pavements because of a lack of city centre parking spaces and blocking ambulance and fire brigade access are a common sight in much of central Moscow.
