There are lots of us who drive to Pardaugava from downtown Riga and back to the downtown over Daugava river every day. Some are sitting through traffic jams during the morning and evening rush hours, others - manage to get over in more free from traffic time. A common issue for all car drivers, as well as those using public transportation, is how to reach the destination quicker, avoiding the traffic jams. Which bridge to choose - Cable-Stayed, Stone Bridge or Islands Bridge? Maybe a train, using the Railway bridge? Or the roundway, over the Riga HES?

Answers to these questions will be different in each case, of course - depending on the situation, your route’s starting point and destination. But anyways, I will try to paint an approximate picture of what goes up daily on the bridges of Riga…

Cable-Stayed Bridge (Vanshu)

My fave. And not just because it’s a face of this blog ;) My observations show that it’s very convenient if you’re heading West, to Pardaugava. Well not if you’re using Valdemara street to get on it - there’s a dense traffic every day. Use the riverside to get on the bridge and you’ll be alright. Traffic jams happen there too, but what I gotta tell you is that in Riga, they’re almost everywhere so if you don’t manage to get past them, don’t hold me responsible. One thing’s for sure though - Cable-Stayed Bridge Eastward bound is a bad idea. Be it morning or afternoon, there’s a bumper-to-bumper situation on there. The most right lane will have some room to breathe, as it is a right turn only lane. You can try taking it and then, if you’re in a real hurry, kindly ask someone to let you in the neiboring lane, or just exit to the riverside, from where connect to Elizabeth street or January 13th. So, besides this right lane, the traffic is rather slow (sometimes even from the Press House) and it seems that people are just enjoying the Old Town skyline, beautifulness of the President’s Palace and the Daugava. No doubt, the view while you drive is amazing - Hansabank’s Sun House on one side and Riga in all its glory on another, but if you want to get there quicker, I would suggest to choose another way to the downtown.

Stone Bridge (Akmens)

This bridge is situated between the Cable-Stayed and Islands bridges and it’s also like such a golden middle in terms of traffic jams. It seems to be appropriate in both directions and if you choose it during the rush hour, you’re likely to get to the other side of the river quicker. There can be some difficulties when getting on the bridge while Westward bound, but once you’re on, the traffic is ok. It’s also ok when heading Eastward, so instead of suffering through Cable-Stayed, you best take the Stone one. I have noticed a lot of times that by choosing this route, you can get to the city faster.

Islands Bridge (Salu)

I used to live in Ziepniekkalns which is right over the Islands, and now when I drive to Turiba I often take this bridge. Only that lately, I am not kind of excited by it. The average speed here will be higher (the limit is 70 kmh, you roll a bit faster in the left lane usually), but with all the speed you are gonna have a bumper-to-bumper frozen traffic Westward in the afternoon, especially at the exit to Monks Island (Mukusala), and a pretty packed jam in the morning downtown bound at the Lachplesha street junction.

…In all the cases, one thing is very important - I call it “Smart Lane Switching”. There’s a possibility to predict, in many places, which lane at what moment is going faster, and take it. Of course, without causing any emergency near-accident situations and not shamelessly getting in front of somebody (hey, I’m not a marshrutka driver!), but just when there is such opportunity kindly switch to the neighboring lane. You can’t forget also to flash your emergency lights to the vehicle left behind you.

But if you are not driving and using the public transportation, then usually there’s not much of a choice which bridge to choose when getting over the river. You will choose the most convenient route with no changes which is gonna bring you right to the destination, correct? I can advise to use the train more if it fits your route -  there are no traffic jams on the Railway Bridge =)

Avoiding the traffic by means of Riga HES might seem attactive to those having some business on the South side of the town, meaning Zemgales and Latgales districts, or maybe even Vidzemes. Sure, the fuel gets consumpted more, but the precious time is being saved.

So, I wish y’all luck fighting the traffic jams getting over the river, and let’s wait for a new wonder - named Southern Bridge, which promises to ease our life in the clouds of exhaust gases.

A presentation of brand new WRX Subarus with blue police lights under the grill took place today. Who would those need? Kinda interesting.

The Highway Patrol’s move is surely clever. And there are gonna be some “low IQ drivers” detained. But what about the high-speed chase? Given our roads condition?

I don’t know how it goes down in Cobra series - have never watched, but there’s no doubt that on Autobahns made for high-speed traffic, chase is way different. In Latvia, it can turn out to be a pitiful experience..

Hopefully the Silver Bullets’ drivers will prove they got “higher IQ”.

And yes, cops love us. Nice Valentine’s Day gift.

The Road Guide, or Ceļu Gids in Latvian, seems to be pretty nice idea to gather information for drivers in Riga and Latvia, as well as around Baltic States overall.

When I first stumbled upon that site, I noticed official Latvian State Roads web camera information which is live from Jurmala highway. Make sure you check it out, looks cool. If you could access those admin menus and move the cam or something, that thing would be priceless =)

The Road Guide is officially run by Latvian State Roads so they got the freshest info on road condition. I guess they own the automatic Road Weather Information systems - I do notice those booths along the highways with anemometers and stuff.

Plus, they’re the guys who are down with road works so they put online the latest scoop on road works, locations, speed limits in those places, what kind of work is done and when it’s about to be finished. This section needs to be visual though, integrated in Google Map cause I don’t wanna scroll all the way down with my route in my mind.

Speaking on Google Maps, there’s amazing stuff found on the Road Guide - Riga traffic web cams with cam location integrated on city map. These are not official State Roads cams like the Jurmala one, but still convenient if you wanna check out what’s happening in those usual traffic jam places.

The site also offers Google Maps shortest route calculation between Latvian cities but I guess I better use the original Google Maps screen, it’s larger and allows additional features.

Links to Baltic Roads site do good, as it turns out that page got official road weather data like temperature (both air and road), precipitation, winds all the way from Lithuania up to Finland and St. Petersburg area.

Those who cross the EU border from Latvia will find out about queues and situation on border through the Road Guide.

The site sure lacks English and Russian, perhaps German and Lithuanian/Estonian cause I figure there are some foreign drivers who’d love to be informed.

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