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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

#551

Post by theluketaylor »

jcgl wrote: post #462
throw-qqqqq wrote: post #398

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AFAIK the European design is made to minimize the length of the truck. There is an EU limit on the total length of the truck and trailer in Europe (default 18.75m, EMS 25.25 etc.).

That reduced length is doubtless a big part of how they seem able operate successfully in the urban fabric. It’d be unthinkable with American-sized trucks and trailers. Tangentially, the smaller ambulances and fire trucks here seem so much more sensible than what you see in America. Generally, I’d remark that many city design problems get easier if you can scale down the problem. In this case, the problem of managing…

North American fire departments are among the biggest blockers of urban road safety improvements here, demanding huge lanes for huge trucks. Those lanes leave tons of space for other drivers, leaving them feeling safe to speed, resulting in more carnage when pedestrians are hit.

Those huge trucks are also all custom built chassis and incredibly expensive.

European fire departments using customized versions of off the shelf commercial vehicles are so much more sensible for urban spaces and don't need to drive transportation decisions.

Re: Helsinki records zero traffic deaths for full year

#552

Post by yieldcrv »

WHA8m wrote: post #480
kqr wrote: post #380

This is one of the things I find difficult about travelling abroad, particularly with children. I'm used to incredibly high safety standards, and when I'm in traffic in many other places in the world it feels like going back a few decades. Genuine question: we have a lot of research on how not to die in traffic (lower speeds around pedestrians, bicyclists stopped ahead of cars in intersections, children in backward f…

Tangential: I'd love to vote for a political party whose only thing is to copy stuff that works in other neighbor countries. Everyone wants to reinvent the wheel or is too proud or something, idk.

Furthering the tangent, its annoying that parties’ primary goal is to gain influence, but in the US one party’s adherents pick a fairly random rights issue and vilify you if that’s not your particular top cause at that random point in time. It would be one thing if that approach worked to gain influence, but it doesn’t. Instead they then say “what!? All of our core demographics picked the party with character traits that are irrelevant to the job and that wasn’t a big enough turn off to prioritize our completely random not even opposite cause? you’re the problem!” when they could focus on causes that individual people actually prioritize. form coalitions. gain influence.

But, fortunately they are just losing supporters as people opt out of fealty to any party. Independents are the largest voting bloc now, although they have partisan leanings, they are underrepresented.

Re: Helsinki records zero traffic deaths for full year

#553

Post by SoftTalker »

Muromec wrote: post #217
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.

Somehow Singapore being 1 degree from the Equator manages to have a bus network, a metro and practically caps the amount of cars on the roads. Also, you seems to underestimate how bad the weather in Amsterdam is. Cycling on a bridge through rain against the wind at 5 degrees (C) isn't very fun either. When I lived in a more hotter climate, 30ish (C) was a-okay for some people to cycle to work and then get a shower at…

That’s ok if you have showers at work. I’ve never worked anywhere that had that. And now you’re taking multiple showers a day, and washing sweat-soaked clothes more often, using more water. If you are a person who doesn’t tend to sweat a lot it might work out. For me, I sweat profusely and would literally be dripping on the floor and my saturated clothing clinging to me after a bike ride on a hot day.

Re: Helsinki records zero traffic deaths for full year

#554

Post by heavenlyblue »

PaulRobinson wrote: post #113

I was in Helsinki for work a couple of years ago, walking back to my hotel with some colleagues after a few hours drinking (incredibly expensive, but quite nice), beer. It was around midnight and we happened to come across a very large mobile crane on the pavement blocking our way. As we stepped out (carefully), into the road to go around it, one of my Finnish colleagues started bemoaning that no cones or barriers ha…

Very much disagree about this, European expats often make fun of how many cones are regularly used on the roads in the UK.

Re: Helsinki records zero traffic deaths for full year

#555

Post by heavenlyblue »

pavlov wrote: post #227
rozab wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would guess Finnish deaths are inflated by the rural rallying culture though, hard to compare

Yes, in rural Finland 17-year-old boys who just got their license regularly end up killing themselves and their friends by reckless driving. I believe there is cultural issue with boys’ upbringing. Recently my 8-year-old daughter was spending a week with her mother’s relatives in middle Finland. One day she sent me a picture of an old Volvo in a ditch. “Guess what dad, my cousin drove it off the road and I was in the…

I saw tourists parking cars in New Zealand and, because the road is on an incline sideways, some cars would fall into a ditch.

Was the car driven recklessly or was it a parking/reversing mistake? This kind of thinking just brings unnecessary racism.

You would think that UK would have a lower rate of traffic incidents with it's "safe" approach to driving but numbers speak the opposite.

Re: Helsinki records zero traffic deaths for full year

#556

Post by arp242 »

kqr wrote: post #368
enaaem wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Even cycling into the city from my neighbouring town (~10 km) can be faster than a car at peak rush hour, because city traffic is just an absolute gridlock (this is in Galway Ireland, the traffic of which is notoriously bad even by Irish standards, but still).

Re: Helsinki records zero traffic deaths for full year

#557

Post by arp242 »

stevekemp wrote: post #364
tommoor wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

There's always a baseline of assholes.

Re: Helsinki records zero traffic deaths for full year

#558

Post by kqr »

yieldcrv wrote: post #552
WHA8m wrote: post #480

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tangential: I'd love to vote for a political party whose only thing is to copy stuff that works in other neighbor countries. Everyone wants to reinvent the wheel or is too proud or something, idk.

Furthering the tangent, its annoying that parties’ primary goal is to gain influence, but in the US one party’s adherents pick a fairly random rights issue and vilify you if that’s not your particular top cause at that random point in time. It would be one thing if that approach worked to gain influence, but it doesn’t. Instead they then say “what!? All of our core demographics picked the party with character traits…

> its annoying that parties’ primary goal is to gain influence

Inevitable consequence of a representive democracy. Parties are chosen based on electability, which is merely a proxy for good policy. This means parties that don't optimise for electability at the cost of good policy will eventually be outcompeted by those that do.

(It's for this reason Graeber sometimes jokingly (?) called representative democracy "elective aristocracy".)

Re: Helsinki records zero traffic deaths for full year

#559

Post by [deleted] »

dilyevsky wrote: post #211
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.

The real reason is Finnish absolutely draconian fines that scale up with income and really really strict enforcement. Make fines start with $500 and go to thousands and actually enforce them and not what SF is doing and we'll have the same but people over here don't like to hear it...

[deleted]

Re: Helsinki records zero traffic deaths for full year

#560

Post by randomfinn3287 »

PaulRobinson wrote: post #113

I was in Helsinki for work a couple of years ago, walking back to my hotel with some colleagues after a few hours drinking (incredibly expensive, but quite nice), beer. It was around midnight and we happened to come across a very large mobile crane on the pavement blocking our way. As we stepped out (carefully), into the road to go around it, one of my Finnish colleagues started bemoaning that no cones or barriers ha…

Safety is taken seriously in Finland, but that is not normal behavior, I don't know of anyone who would call the police in that situation. Sounds more like some kind of 'virtual signaling' after a few beers or other kind of awkward behavior in an unfamiliar social situation where there were visitors from abroad. Or just being a karen like someone else suggested (and got downvoted), but anyways not normal.

Source: me, a Finn living in the Helsinki region.

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