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Helsinki records zero traffic deaths for full year

helsinkitimes.fi

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Re: Helsinki records zero traffic deaths for full year

#361

Post by airspresso »

Taek wrote: post #317
hattmall wrote: post #305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It insane to me that anyone, let alone enough people to actually make it happen, would think that was a good policy. It's bussing, but without the busses.

There's a striking lack of accountability in politics. You don't really need evidence that a policy is going to accomplish it's stated goals, you just need the monkey brain narrative to resonate with voters (and the other elements of the political apparatus)

In the Nordics almost everything that gets passed as law has been thorough studies of impact and consequence first. Takes a long time but means the law has a chance of actually having the intended effect.

Re: Helsinki records zero traffic deaths for full year

#362

Post by ath3nd »

frosted-flakes wrote: post #266
SoftTalker wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some areas such as Amsterdam though are just naturally more ammenable to walking, cycling, and transit. Cycling in 90+ (F) temperatures with high humidity (very common in the summer in the US midwest or south), or even just walking very far or waiting very long for a bus is pretty miserable. I'd arrive at my destination literally dripping with sweat and really unpresentable.

I sure that Amsterdam has plenty of Dutch hills.

My wife used to live in Bristol, which has plenty of hills, and she was biking everywhere. That's why she has a nice butt.

If one needs excuses to justify having a car and being stuck in traffic, hills ain't a valid one. 30km/h is great, makes for less noise, less air pollution, and now we see, it makes it for 0 traffic deaths. Much better to have the option to reach a grocery store on foot, by bike, by public transport and car than have no options but a car. That makes for less cars on the road, and, funnily enough, 30km/h on a non-busy road will often get you faster to where you want to go than 50 on a busy one.

Again, that's why we Europeans are both happier and fitter than our American counterparts.

Re: Helsinki records zero traffic deaths for full year

#363

Post by airspresso »

timeon wrote: post #339
tlogan wrote: post #124

Maybe Helsinki isn’t special: just fewer cars. And they apparently only 21% of daily trips used a private car. Helsinki has about 3x fewer vehicles per capita than the average U.S. city. So it’s not surprising it’s safer since fewer cars mean fewer chances of getting hit by one. Plus their cars are much smaller. In fact, there are probably plenty of U.S. towns and cities with similar number of cars that have zero tra…

> Plus their cars are much smaller. Not smaller then in other European places. It is just that US cars are extremely huge.

Exactly. US is the outlier vs the rest of the world when it comes to car size.

Re: Helsinki records zero traffic deaths for full year

#364

Post by stevekemp »

tommoor wrote: post #41
max_ wrote: post #35

"More than half of Helsinki’s streets now have speed limits of 30 km/h." This is the only secret. People over speeding is what kills.

Drivers are actually calm in Helsinki, not constantly honking and slowly rolling into you in the pedestrian crossing either.

Last night two cars tried to drive in front of a tram, on my ride to the Kallio block party.

So while driving is generally calm, and I'm impressed at how often drives stop for the zebra-crossings, despite minimal notice, it's not universal.

Re: Helsinki records zero traffic deaths for full year

#365

Post by normie3000 »

throwaway9832 wrote: post #278
sophia01 wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The UK is not that different by comparison. Do note that the UK is 15.6x as dense as Finland, and the climate is quite different: e.g. in Helsinki (southermost city) mean daily temperature is below freezing point 4/12 months of the year (very consequential for driving). E.g. in Scotland even the mean daily minimum does not cross freezing point in any month. OECD data has Finland at 0.36 fatalities per 10k vehicles…

[flagged]

Could we recreate these optimum safety conditions by legislating for ice-feel tires? Then everyone would be in the slippery mindset all year.

Re: Helsinki records zero traffic deaths for full year

#366

Post by frosted-flakes »

ath3nd wrote: post #362
frosted-flakes wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I sure that Amsterdam has plenty of Dutch hills.

My wife used to live in Bristol, which has plenty of hills, and she was biking everywhere. That's why she has a nice butt. If one needs excuses to justify having a car and being stuck in traffic, hills ain't a valid one. 30km/h is great, makes for less noise, less air pollution, and now we see, it makes it for 0 traffic deaths. Much better to have the option to reach a grocery store on foot, by bike, by public transp…

I'm not sure how common the term is (I heard it in a YT video), but a "Dutch hill" is wind, because the Netherlands is very windy, and anyone who's ridden a bike in heavy wind knows that it can be just as much an obstacle as a moderate hill.

Re: Helsinki records zero traffic deaths for full year

#367

Post by Wilder7977 »

tlogan wrote: post #124

Maybe Helsinki isn’t special: just fewer cars. And they apparently only 21% of daily trips used a private car. Helsinki has about 3x fewer vehicles per capita than the average U.S. city. So it’s not surprising it’s safer since fewer cars mean fewer chances of getting hit by one. Plus their cars are much smaller. In fact, there are probably plenty of U.S. towns and cities with similar number of cars that have zero tra…

Achieving a low amount of trips done by car is already something that doesn't happen magically, and is the result of policy decisions (e.g., invest in public transport). Then there are speed limits, road designs etc.

Re: Helsinki records zero traffic deaths for full year

#368

Post by kqr »

enaaem wrote: post #240
max_ wrote: post #35

"More than half of Helsinki’s streets now have speed limits of 30 km/h." This is the only secret. People over speeding is what kills.

They did the same thing in Amsterdam. There were a lot complaints at the beginning, but the city became much nicer in the end. Immediate improvement was the reduction of noise. Studies have shown that there was only a 5% increase of travel time. For example, that would be 1 minute on a 20 minute trip. That is because the largest determinant of average speed are the intersections and not the maximum speed limit.

You notice this quickly when cycling in cities. Cars take forever to safely negotiate their way through intersections thanks to their size.

Re: Helsinki records zero traffic deaths for full year

#369

Post by cyberax »

masklinn wrote: post #357
cyberax wrote: post #351

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, I don't hide my despair at large cities. They're destroying the fabric of the Western civilization by acting as black holes for population. > You've also glossed over the more painful statistic: for every lifetime-equivalent lost on mass transit inefficiencies, there are hundreds lost to gridlock in NYC. Here's the thing. A well-designed human-oriented city like Houston has FASTER commutes than ANY similar-si…

> well-designed human-oriented city like Houston Said no urban planner in the history of urban planning. Or NJB ( https://youtu.be/uxykI30fS54 ) > FASTER commutes than ANY similar-sized city in Europe. Houston ranks 7th worst traffic in the US. The internet tells me you’re boasting of 30mn for an “average 6 miles commute”. That’s bicycle distance and speed that you need to drive due to a broken city.

> Said no urban planner in the history of urban planning. Or NJB (https://youtu.be/uxykI30fS54)

Wrong. Houston is a great example for planners who care about housing availability and the quality of life for the people. And not bike lanes and road diets.

> Houston ranks 7th worst traffic in the US.

Yes. And the 7th worst traffic in the US is STILL BETTER than any large European city's oh-so-great transit.

Tells you volumes, doesn't it?

Re: Helsinki records zero traffic deaths for full year

#370

Post by ferongr »

lbschenkel wrote: post #354
Saline9515 wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very entitled comment. The food worker who has to stand up for the whole day to make your matcha frappuccino could enjoy some rest on the way home.

Another problem that exists only in the US as they don't treat you as a slave and make you stand the whole day elsewhere. People have chairs and do use them.

Service workers in coffee shops stand all day here in enlightened Europe too.
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