How #Finland Put #Traffic Crashes on Ice

The Nordic nation’s rate of vehicle fatalities is a fraction of the toll in the US, despite a harsh climate and ice-covered streets. Here’s how the Finns do traffic safety.

by David Zipper, CityLab

"Instead of committing its future to the automobile, as so many US cities did in [during the 1960s], Helsinki kept its streetcars and embarked on a massive transit expansion. The city constructed the world’s northernmost subway, which opened in 1982. As of 2016, roughly a quarter of urban trips in Finland occur on foot, over 9% by transit, and 7.5% by bike. (In the Helsinki metropolitan area, which has a population about 1.3 million, those numbers are even higher.) One in seven Finns live in rural areas, roughly equivalent to the US share.

"In Helsinki, city officials leverage street design to reinforce lower speed limits. 'We deliberately have narrow lanes, so the driver doesn’t feel comfortable,' said Reetta Putkonen, the director of Helsinki’s transportation planning division. 'Three and a half meters is a normal lane width, even 3.2. We also use trees and bushes to push people to go slower.' For comparison, in the US many lanes are 12 feet (3.7 meters) wide.

"Finland’s approach to truly reckless speeding is unique. If a Finn is caught going more than 20 km/h over the posted limit, the resulting fine scales with the speeder’s income. Such tickets can reach eye-popping levels; in 2002 a Nokia executive was slapped with a 116,000-euro fine, equivalent to two weeks’ income, for driving his motorcycle 75 km/h in a 50 km/h zone."

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#PublicTransportation #Bicycling #TrafficAccidents #SlowItDown