Transport Infrastructure as a Factor of Spatial Development of Agglomerations (Case Study of Saint Petersburg Agglomeration)

Last decades in Russia have been marked by active growth of urban agglomerations. However, this process is spontaneous and lacks sufficient regulatory framework, which could define the legal status of the “agglomeration” as merger of territories under jurisdiction of various public administration entities; that is why different problems of socio-economic nature have appeared. One of the main problems of the Saint Petersburg agglomeration is high loading of main transport routes connecting the agglomeration with adjacent suburban areas of the Leningrad Region. This situation can be solved with the help of the formation of a polycentric agglomeration model which can reduce traffic loads on the metropolis. The model should be based on the arrangement of clusters providing favorable conditions for the development of specialized production and associated facilities and all types of infrastructure, especially transport infrastructure.