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As a precaution against pilfering, gas is sold only in 21 gallon lots for prepur-chased coupons. Drivers frequently carry an empty vodka bottle, in the event the auto's tank is filled before one of the 21 gallon units is completely pumped in. Since the housing shortage places a higher priority on new apartments, virtually no garages have been built. Cars must be kept outside or put on blocks from November to March.
Roads are generally narrow, often pass directly through small villages, and have broken surfaces. They are a major cause of Russia's alarmingly high accident rate. The bad roads also make for ridiculously low-speed cross-country travels. According to Moscow's Economic Gazette, the average speed of autos in Russia last year was 18 m.p.h. "Our great-grandfathers traveled by troika from St. Petersburg to Moscow at about the same speed 200 years ago," commented the Gazette. The Soviet weekly further noted that seat belts are nonexistent, because Soviet light industry has yet to devise a buckle that works. There are also hardly any lane markings on the roads, because the chemical industry has so far been unable to invent a paint that will not fade away as soon as it is applied.
I Want a Car. To cope with these problems, the Soviets have a ten-year plan for major highway construction between cities. Moscow is working on the development of an electronic traffic-control system. Meanwhile, however, consumer demands for cars are skyrocketing. Russians are so auto-hungry that they will pay twice the list price to those who win new cars in the state-run lottery. A cartoon in the Soviet humor magazine Krokodil shows a swaddled infant in a carriage, howling, "I want a car!" at the sight of the new Zhiguli. Even when the Togliatti plant reaches full production, it is scarcely likely to meet the demand. According to one estimate, even if Russia should succeed in producing 7,000,000 cars a year, it would still take 18 years to provide one car for every one of the Soviet Union's 70 million families.