In Moscow, most people use public transportation. There are limited parking and very few rules of the road, so driving your own car can be dangerous and costly. Public transportation is very well run in Moscow, with buses and trains that arrive every five to ten minutes. You are rarely left waiting on a late bus, and the buses almost never cancel their routes. Unlike public transportation in the U.S., it is very popular, well funded and clean.
The Moscow Metro system was built during World War II. It was dug out in an attempt to provide bomb shelters for the people of Moscow. Following the end of WW II, the Metro was finished and connected, and they're still expanding it today! The oldest Metro stops are also the deepest and most ornate, with different themes and mosaics for each station. They still feature the hammer and sickle, depictions of Stalin and Lenin, and most of the artwork focuses heavily on agriculture and communist ideology. The mosaics are beautiful and make you feel like you've been transported back in time. Stepping off a modern subway car and into a station that hasn't changed since the late 1940s is mind-blowing. By keeping these mosaics, I think that people feel more connected to their Soviet past. My professors like to say within every Russian are those who came before them. So, even among Russians who were born and live in Moscow, there exists a peasant who once reaped those fields.
