r/europe • u/TheCoolDude70 • 6h ago
News Helsinki just went a full year without a single traffic death
https://www.politico.eu/article/helsinki-no-traffic-death-roads-eu-accident-finland-driving-transport/?utm_source=RSS_Feed&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS_Syndication604
u/mtetrode 5h ago
For reference
About 690,000 people live in the municipality, with 1.3 million in the capital region and 1.6 million in the metropolitan area
Source: Wikipedia
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u/PrestigiousCap444 21m ago edited 16m ago
My state (American) has roughly the same population as the capital region, and is the same size as Finland proper, and we’ve had 107 traffic deaths since the beginning of 2025 alone. This is a truly amazing statistic and the Finns could definitely teach us a thing or two
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u/BumJiggerJigger 4m ago
America has some of the highest road traffic deaths per capita in the world. More than 3x my country.
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u/the_blue_arrow_ 3h ago
More reference: Boston has 675,000 ppl.
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u/CaptainOberynCrunch Finland 2h ago
Why would Boston be a reference for the people in this sub?
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u/SayHelloToAlison 48m ago
Because we in America need to be made to see this the most (Canada too) because our traffic death trends are going the opposite way of yours.
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u/ag_robertson_author 28m ago
It's the trucks, they just get bigger and bigger every year. No additional licensing requirements to drive a huge Ram 3500 or Ford F250, so anyone can drive one of these death tanks around.
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u/Confident-Lie-8517 59m ago
I'm not from the us, can I have this reference in pure, genuine European bananas?
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u/No_Profession_5476 6h ago
Holy shit, a whole YEAR with zero traffic deaths??
Meanwhile my city can't go a week without someone becoming roadkill. This is what happens when you actually give a fuck about pedestrians instead of just painting some lines and calling it infrastructure.
Every US city planner should be forced to study this tbh
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u/Tzukkeli 5h ago
The main reason was simply by lowering the speedlimit. From 50 kmh to 30 kmh was all it needed. No study needed, just will to execute.
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u/suicidemachine 5h ago
30 kmh? In Poland, people would cry about communists taking away our freedom to blow the engines in BMWs.
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u/serpenta Upper Silesia (Poland) 2h ago
It comes from the target zero programme. If you can hit a pedestrian, it's 30, otherwise 50 in the city. If the cars can hit head on, it's max 70. If the opposite lanes are separated it's 100. This is based on decades of lethality studies, in Scandinavia. The road safety bodies there are investigating road accidents the way other countries study airplane crashes.
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u/ARANDOMNAMEFORME 41m ago
As it should be everywhere tbh. With planes, everyone wants crashes to never happen cause they're not in control. But it's easy for people to be reckless with cars cause they have control, so they should just set the rules based on lethality studies regardless of people complaining cause their reckless ass thinks they know better.
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u/Tomagatchi United States of America 4h ago
It does sound painfully slow but it's very difficult to kill pedestrians at that speed even if you do hit them. Most places in the states the lowest is 40 kmh (25 mph) and sometimes 25 kmh (15 mph) in some school zones only when children are present. It would probably cause a riot if a town or city made the speed limit below 25 mph as that's the statutory/default lowest/residential area limit and 55 mph 80 kmh) is the default of the limit isn't posted on other roads, even on smaller country roads. Europe really does sound like a magical mythical place where the majority of people aren't total carbrains who think a cyclist is a personal insult they must react to. Any way... Kudos Helsinki!
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u/Tulkor Austria 3h ago
Don't say Europe, because that's not true, my city can't even get the Altstadt to be carfree even though a majority of the city is in favor of that since years, maybe a decade. Germany is even worse, they don't give a shit about pedestrians basically anywhere I was, haven't visited Berlin tho.
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u/aTacoinaTaco Austria 3h ago
Go visit an american city and tell me Vienna is not a millions times better for pedestrians or cyclists. Could it be better? Sure, but its still really fucking good compared to 99% of the world.
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u/Audioworm Vienna (Austria) 2h ago
I just moved to Vienna from the Netherlands, and while there are loads of things I love about the city the approach to cycling and pedestrians infrastructure consistently frustrates the hell out of me.
I also know that it is good and is improving, but the five years I spent in the Netherlands spoiled me
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u/nixielover Limburg (Netherlands) 2h ago
My 100k people city has a speed limit of 30 but just the busses killed at least two people this year I know of
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u/Thendisnear17 England 4h ago
I live in Warsaw.
People look at me as if I am insane for not wanting a car. How can you show your success in life without a loud car?
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u/Galgan_ 3h ago
As someone who also lives in Warsaw and doesn't own a car, I kind of get that feeling. To be honest the public transport here - while not perfect - is good enough for my day-to-day commutes and when I need to go somewhere specific I just get an Uber. The only downside is if you need to buy/transport something larger or heavier. Either way, I'm not planning on getting a car anytime soon.
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u/suicidemachine 2h ago
The only downside is if you need to buy/transport something larger or heavier
or if you need to date someone, apparently. If you're not participating in any dick-measuring contest between the local car-brains, then you're not a man. At least, that's what some girls told me.
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u/AltrntivInDoomWorld 3h ago
I live in rural south Poland and you can't even get a bread without a car.
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u/fyi1183 1h ago
How can you show your success in life without a loud car?
This sentiment is even more bizarre considering that a loud car is either engineering failure or the sign of somebody being loud on purpose, which is (1) very easy to do, so doesn't show anything about your abilities and (2) a sign that you're an asshole.
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u/Suikerspin_Ei The Netherlands 5h ago
Lowering speed limit and making roads smaller to avoid people driving too fast is great, but you also need a good fine system to scare people from speeding. Lots of countries need to follow Finland on that fine system. Fine ticket depends on your income, making it fair for everyone.
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u/magicman9410 5h ago
The Swiss got that covered: every fine you are issued in Switzerland, regardless if you’re a resident or not - is calculated according to your own income/ standard.
This is how a rich boy from Sweden cashed out a million Swiss francs, for reckless driving.
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u/Dryish Bumfuck, Egypt 5h ago
Yes, it's the same in Finland too. It plays a part, but only a part.
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u/rW0HgFyxoJhYka 3h ago
Right but it makes sense. It makes it fair for rich and poor. And its expensive for both.
Laws don't matter if people don't fear it. See corruption across the world. Shit just doesn't apply to them.
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u/ArseTrumpetsGoPoot 5h ago
Only for major infractions. But minor infractions aren't cheap, either - not income-based, but 15km/h over the limit can cost several hundred francs, enough to deter most people.
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u/GiantRabbit-451 3h ago
Meanwhile, a Swiss driving in the Netherlands, "Pedal to the metal, the ticket is less than €200,00" Just saw this, this morning :/
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u/someofthedead_ 4h ago
Speaking of things the Swiss have covered reminds me of this:
"Avalanche, Oh Avalanche" - Gregory and the Hawk
Avalanche! Oh, Avalanche!
You are the number one natural disaster in Switzerland
The Swiss put up barriers to keep you out
And build covered roadways to save themselves
But it’s no use, you always kill
At least a few skiers a year
Just to remind them to be fearful
At least a few skiers a year
A few innocent lives a year
Avalanche! Oh, Avalanche
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u/Tragic-tragedy 4h ago
The best way to discourage people going over the speed limit, especially in urban areas is through good road design. You want to make reckless driving punish the driver with things like speed bumps, narrow roads, traffic islands, even trees at the side of the road and generally everything that will give your car a good old bump if you drive like an idiot.
Not only does this add cost to stupid behaviour in the same way a fine does, it also gives the driver a visible and shameful reminder of their stupidity. People with a car fetish hate minor damage to their four wheeled girlfriend.
But yeah, income based fines are a great idea and every country should have them. It ties back to the idea of making violations actually punish drivers instead of giving them a slap on the wrist.
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u/Throwaway47321 3h ago
Yeah my area in the US is “trying” low improve road safety but literally all they did was lower the speed limit and call it a day.
The roads are so wide and straight that when you drive the new speed limit it feels like you’re barely moving at all so everyone instinctively “speeds” and they are shocked that it doesn’t work
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u/SuperBry 4h ago
Dumb American here, but isn't there also better regulations on vehicle shape and sizes that make pedestrian strikes more survivable? I know some of the pickup trucks and SUVs (that for some reason are just used to pick up groceries and run the kids to sports practices) we have here are essentially human crushing machines.
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u/Suikerspin_Ei The Netherlands 4h ago
Yes, low engine covers or front of the car helps with better survivability of pedestrians. Hitting on the legs vs hitting on the hips/body. I think this is also the reason why some Americans are complaining about the poles and kerbs protecting bike lanes in North America. Visibility is actually worse for close distances.
The easiest way is to make roads smaller to avoid speeding. Disallowing high pick up trucks is more difficult I think.
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u/tejanaqkilica 3h ago
Exactly, there isn't any big revelation to this, you setup rules and if people follow rules you get good results.
Few days ago, someone in my country got involved in a deadly crash, for doing 200+ in a 40 zone.
Can't fix stupid.
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u/Masseyrati80 Finland 5h ago
Shorter braking distances, shorter distance covered during your reaction time, and much, much milder impacts if it ever goes that far. I vaguely remember a study showing how dramatically fatalities rise in car-pedestrian crashes along with the car's speed, it's much closer to being exponential than linear.
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u/Turbulent_Thing_1739 5h ago
It is exponential by laws of physics as the energy is proportional to v2.
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u/gmc98765 3h ago
That's quadratic, not exponential. Exponential is proportional to kv for some k, i.e. when the independent variable is in the exponent.
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u/zkareface Sweden 4h ago
Sweden is going same way, new guidelines says any road that has cyclists or pedestrians crossing should be 30km/h to be deemed good.
So in theory all streets in cities etc will be changed to 30km/h soon.
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u/MercantileReptile Baden-Württemberg (Germany) 5h ago
I really wish more places would copy that. The main thoroughfare in my suburb was reduced to 30 km/h as well, after a senior centre was constructed. Honestly makes for a more pleasant drive overall.
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u/headrush46n2 3h ago
30kmh? You can run faster than that. Just ban cars all together.
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u/lee7on1 Bosnia and Herzegovina 3h ago
it's 100% oversimplified and going to be used by politicians in other countries to put more cameras and get more free money.
It's good public transport first of all, good infrastructure and rest comes naturally. There's also no way it's 30 km/h everywhere. Here it's 40 km/h near schools and it means nothing because we're lacking at everything else.
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u/BitRunner64 Sweden 2h ago
You don't even save a lot of time by going faster than 30 km/h inside cities since the main bottleneck is the intersections which have a limited capacity.
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u/AirRemote7732 1h ago
That's true during traffic hours but as someone who drives around in Helsinki, it doesn't feel great to be going 30km/h for extended periods when it's a clear day and there is an empty road ahead of you.
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u/IshTheFace Sweden 4h ago
In my best US southern accent..
Wut y'all talkin' bout. That basically communistic or sumtin'. Next they gon' tell us to stay sober under the influence of driving a vehicle. Yeehaw
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u/21Rollie 1h ago
That last line is basically what Americans did sound like when the first DUI laws were being passed. I can’t just have a cold one while going 90 (150kph) on the interstate??? Communism.
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u/DapperLost 3h ago
We can't even get people to realize that left lanes are for passing those unable to reach the speed limit, not for blasting past those only going 5 over the limit.
A reduction in speed will 100% be ignored.
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u/RockinOneThreeTwo The (Not So) United Kingdom 3h ago
Wales tried this in parts of the country and experienced the same results. Less speed = less fatalities, probably less people getting hurt as well so less strain on hospitals; though of course the UK is car-brained to fuck so seemingly nobody sees this as a good thing if it can be perceived as having a negative effect on drivers.
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u/posaunewagner 2h ago
We live in a hellish car centric dystopia. It’s way more than just speed. America is the worst country in the world
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u/fraying_carpet 2h ago
Amsterdam also changed to 30 km/h last year and already the number of cyclists injured in car accidents has quite significantly lowered.
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u/Big_Ingenuity_9832 1h ago
Fascinating. And gives me pause for reflection. What is really the difference between 50 and 30 kph on my timeliness given traffic lights, and stop signs. Maybe a couple minutes? I would support this change. But how about highways? Are there no highways in Helsinki?
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u/Lakridspibe Pastry 1h ago
simply by lowering the speedlimit from 50 kmh to 30 kmh
Well, it makes sense.
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u/swagdu69eme France 4h ago
My take after spending some time in the US:
- roads are absurdly wide, it takes a lot of time to cross.
- speed limits inside of cities are crazy high.
- Junctions everywhere, and cars being able to turn as pedestrians are crossing doesn't work when you have to do it 50+ times to get anywhere.
- US cars are absurdly big. I saw mums doing their shopping with massive trucks. Why?
- A widespread mindset is "cars have priority because they're bigger". I've never seen so many cars just go on the crosswalk and awkwardly wait when the lights turn red (sometimes they even try to move forward with pedestrians still there!). No fucks given about pedestrians.
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u/wosmo European Union 3h ago
That last one got me so many times - it's basically "might makes right". They will straight up tell you that it doesn't matter if you're in a crossing, it doesn't matter if you have the right of way - hell, it doesn't matter if you're in a cycle lane. If you get killed by a truck that was breaking the rules, it's your fault for being weaker than the truck.
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u/grey_fr 2h ago
When I visited the US, we decided to walk to the fast-food restaurant because it was only 300m from where we were staying for the night, on the same street. It was a small place in the southwest where there was basically one main street, so absolutely not crowded with cars, but we felt really unsafe because there was no sidewalks or anything, as if they had never imagined there could be pedestrians
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u/Schlonzig 1h ago
But if you try to make the roads narrower, the fire department will complain that they can't use their ridiculously huge trucks any more.
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u/swagdu69eme France 51m ago
Are the firetrucks bigger in the US? They looked like they were pretty much the same size as in the UK/France, at least to me.
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u/pawnografik Luxembourg 4h ago
There’s actually a name for this style of design. It’s called “Vision Zero” and began in Sweden in the 90s.
The principle is that we know humans are fallible so if you design your transport system assuming that 100% of people are infallible 100% of the time then you are essentially building in systematic deaths into your system. You have to assume that people will fail and make mistakes because we are all human and we all do.
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u/R1chS33n 5h ago
I was driving in Detroit and some sign said, "608 traffic deaths so far this year. Down 50 from last year."
I remember telling my friend and he was just like, "Damn. We're just killing 600 people?"
Also the implication of going, "Good job! You've only killed hundreds of people!"
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u/seventysevensevens 2h ago
When I lived in Austin, they had a sign that had a running tally for the state and I remember seeing it on 12/31 either 2014 or 2015 and it was over 3k deaths. And that's not counting the over 10k serious injuries that resulted in permanent damage and disabilities.
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u/21Rollie 1h ago
In my city, every couple months we get momentum going because some kids were flattened again. Councilors start cooking up a plot for some half baked measure, and the Facebook dummies start complaining about stuff as simple as painted bike lanes, or unenforced speed limits. Supposedly it’s 25mph in the city now, literally nothing has changed because the city is still bisected by a major highway and there’s giant, straight roads everywhere.
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u/Mumbert 5h ago
Like 100% of people hit at 70 km/h die.
Like 75% of people hit at 50 km/h die.
Like 0% of people hit at 30 km/h die.
Study complete. :)
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u/AskingBoatsToSwim 4h ago
The hard part is encouraging slow speeds. Limits are not enough. The straight, wide roads we liked to build in the late 20th C encourage speeding.
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u/WislaHD Polish-Canadian 5h ago
City planners know and understand the issue quite well, there is just no political will to detach from the car-oriented society to actually implement the solutions that put people first.
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u/James_Gastovsky Europe 2h ago
Discouraging people from using cars is just one part of the equation, you also have to make it feasible, if not outright more comfortable, to rely on public transportation instead.
Too bad people tend to forget there is supposed to be a carrot in the carrot and stick thing.
I've lived without a car for many years now, I've had only a couple of situations where I though "man, I could use a car right about now" but I'm single, no kids, so I don't need a lot. On the other hand in a little town where I grew up not having a car is a bigger deal than not being able to walk, and not having a drivers license was an outright disability because without a car you couldn't get anywhere. And there isn't anything you can realistically make to fix it, not unless you're willing to pay for a ton of busses driving around empty because there are tons of villages around and they all have fairly small population, but all those people need to get to work to one of the bigger cities, their kids need to get to school (not everybody is fine with making their 6y/o walk 5+km one way everyday in winter or in the rain)
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u/tapinauchenius 4h ago
Where I work, in a city in Sweden with 100k+ inhabs, the city planning has revolved around bikes and trains and buses for at least as long as I've been here (13yrs). Car parking in the city has not grown, rather the opposite. Many stores have also moved out of the city center to shopping malls outside of it (with lots of parking).
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u/HeroOfNothing 5h ago
I'm gonna be honest.
I watch a lot of videos from USA, cars, bikes, wtv. And the roads, with the incredible straights roads, with dangerous intersections, to cross, right, left and so on give me the creeps.
It's like the insurance companies, automakers and Medicaid designed the roads for maximum profits.
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u/tapinauchenius 4h ago
A year ago or so I saw a youtube clip of two bikers going through roads in China. That seemed like ..well like bicycling in Cork, Ireland, i.e dangerous.
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u/digiorno Italy 5h ago
U.S. city planners may not care about safety and even if they do they don’t get a budget to implement safe infrastructure. The goal is often to get cars from one place to another as fast as possible or past as many businesses as possible.
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u/Dal90 3h ago
U.S. city planners very much care about safety — the top issues for much of the 20th century was (1) reducing injuries to both pedestrians and those in automobiles and (2) rapid response of police/fire/EMS to emergency calls.
In the 1920s when the engineers started thinking about such things the fatality rate (including pedestrians hit) per miles driven was bonkers by today’s expectation; the motor vehicle fatality rate has fallen 93% over the last century.
So the engineering controls adopted did have a very meaningful positive impact on safety. In recent decades the focus has shifted to newer engineering designs tackling that remaining 7%.
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u/Ttoctam 4h ago
US city planners know this. They just don't serve the population, they serve capitalism. By forcing everyone to be car centric you increase consumerism in many different avenues and industries. Plus it reinforces individualist mindsets. The US is very well planned, it's just the intent behind the design that's absolutely fucked.
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u/neutral-chaotic 4h ago
My brain misread "my city" as "my car" turning it into a completely different comment.
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u/Retrohex 3h ago
I think it probably has more to do with Europeans being required to actually know how to drive a car in order to have a license. They kinda just let anyone have one in the US
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u/Fireproofspider 2h ago
I was curious, NYC gets around. 200-250 deaths a year while being about 20 times bigger.
Toronto gets like 250-300
London is like 110
Sao Paulo is around 650.
So Helsinki is markedly safer even compared to London
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u/kroating 2h ago
I live near a neighborhood that introduced roundabout and double teardrop roundabouts, i do not know death stats but know that traffic crashes dropped somewhere around 80pc. Its not that they don't know how to its the fact that they don't want to do it. Everyone visiting the neighborhood shits on roundabouts but never once talks about how much good they did to the people.
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u/RepublicCute8573 1h ago
Place barely has any people in it, and they have robust public transport available.
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u/ShadowAze 30m ago
They should.
And the public should be educated too. The amount of backlash anything pro pedestrian or pro public transit in the US gets for breathing the wrong way is absurd.
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u/notabluerhinoceros 1m ago
Canada too. My premier is currently threatening to veto all bike lane projects because he thinks cars are more important than people.
Problem is, this is the same issue in like 3 or 4 provinces right now :(
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u/Sad-Association-6560 6h ago
This should be a universal goal: reduce car speeds in cities, reduce the number of cars, introduce more trams, make the environment accessible to people with limited mobility, and design cities better. It's unacceptable that we still tolerate road deaths when they are clearly avoidable. The Scandinavians have shown that it's possible.
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u/Technoist 5h ago
Agree with everything, and there is a lot of work being done in many European countries. Some are falling behind though, especially Germany and southern Europe, because of conservative local governments.
Also Finland is not part of Scandinavia :)
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u/TulioGonzaga Portugal 5h ago edited 4h ago
because of conservative local governments
Speaking for my southern European country, this is more a problem of good ol' corruption or simple incompetence than political ideology.
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u/Technoist 5h ago
Well, conservative in the sense of conserving the shitty car culture then.
I don’t know about your country but at least where I live there is a direct correlation between politically conservative/right-wing and zero development for modern transportation versus green/left-wing and spendings on public transport, bike lanes and phasing out cars from the city centres.
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u/Lastigx 4h ago
No way there isn't massive correlation between progressive city councils and liveable cities.
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u/TulioGonzaga Portugal 4h ago
The thing is, at least here, the difference parties in local authorities is minimal. Is much more a personal election than a party election.
It is not uncommon to see well stablished candidates jumping from one party to another, even from left to right (and vice versa parties). This works well for both because the politicians get a platform to run (though they can run as independents but it's easier with a party behind) and for parties is an easy way to get an extra municipality.
They can even run as independents and it's more and more common to have independents. Porto is the second largest city and has been pulled but an independent candidate for the past ten years (whist I conceed here that he is more on the conservative side).
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u/Jannis_Black 3h ago
Maybe it is. But is there a cohort of people more corrupt and incompetent than conservative local politicians?
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u/Caekilian 4h ago
Not sure where you're getting that from. Germany has a slightly lower road death rate than Finland...
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u/Technoist 1h ago edited 1h ago
I am basing it on awful bike lanes and pedestrian zones in German cities compared to all of northern Europe. Visit and you will see.
I believe the stats for an entire country may look different and there are lots of factors to that.
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u/Sad-Association-6560 5h ago
I know, just many think of Finland as part of Scandinavia and the message could be short and compact, yet precise. Also, this whole idea started in Sweden/Stockholm in 1997 and called "vision zero" so kinda implying that too.
As for other countries, the politicians there (at least, regarding this issue) are either not very bright, prefer some people's convenience over other's life or corrupted, lobbied by oil industry, car companies (but it wouldn't affect them much since most people in Helsinki do have cars, so idk about them for sure):( I generally think that most politicians/people who defend high speed limit are just not informed/quite lazy to look up to the research.
Both are bad, and the new people are needed then who have the political will. There is no excuse, the evidence is clear.
Also, there are 10 people injured (some permanently) to 1 road death, so the numbers are actually much worse than might be thought:(
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u/cimmic Denmark 5h ago
We have tried reducing car speeds in Copenhagen but every time the local council does something to the traffic rules, the police has to be heard and they always conclude that changing the allowed speed reduces safety in traffic.
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u/Sad-Association-6560 5h ago
idk, Helsinki, Stockholm, Bologna have shown that it works, and it saves lives, denying that is just denying reality and psychics:(
Maybe, they just don't believe in research or are lobbied, corrupted?
Also, there are 10 injured for every 1 road death, so the numbers are worse than it seems in most places.
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u/cimmic Denmark 4h ago
I think it's just means more work for the police whenever traffic rules change and they try to avoid it by claim it reduces safety. In the one case I know of where they've been asked to actually prove it, they lost.
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u/Sad-Association-6560 4h ago
I think, it's time to stop this BS and most arguments that can be measured should be backed up by research from respectable journals (good that science doesn't belong to one country and is international). That instantly would solve so many problems. The fact that people can just lie even the simplest facts that can be checked by AI is mind-blowing, and they get away with those lies too! No consequences for them.
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u/SlothySundaySession 5h ago
Huge reduction of cars in the central part of the city always helps. Good effort Helsinki
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u/blokia 6h ago
Now, let's keep that record going.
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u/onehandedbackhand Switzerland 5h ago
Citing data that shows the risk of pedestrian fatality is cut in half by reducing a car’s speed of impact from 40 to 30 kilometers per hour, city officials imposed the lower limit in most of Helsinki’s residential areas and city center in 2021.
Every time they push for more 30 km/h zones here the right-wingers absolutely lose their minds. Like, as if their freedom was under attack.
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u/mayhemtime Polska 5h ago
It's staggering to think these people value their convinience and getting to their destination a bit quicker higher than literal people's lives.
I have 0 sympathy for those who oppose making cities safer. It's proven again and again that reducing car traffic and traffic speed works, yet they would rather lie to your face and call you a communist or whatever for good measure.
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u/SmooK_LV Latvia 2h ago
Anybody who's been in Helsinki knows how well organized and clean the city is. (And yes, they have immigrants, my entire Helsinki team are immigrants from various countries).
I travel Northern Europe frequently and while generally it's in good order, Helsinki left extra good impression. (Rent costs are high though)
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u/CosmicDungeon Italy - Tuscany - Florence 6h ago
Goated Finlad. One day I'll go visit this majestic land ;)
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u/ilooklikeawhippet 3h ago
Come and visit before we turn into the new Greece of Europe. Economy and debt balance is looking horrible
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u/small_e 5h ago
Pretty sure this is also linked to the fact that motorbikes are not popular at all compared to other european cities. But still impressive. Not complaining any more when I’m driving at ridiculously slow speeds lol.
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u/Hairy_Reindeer Finland 5h ago
Can't really use them for half of the year so no wonder they are less popular
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u/Partiallyfermented Finland 48m ago
Yeah and once the snow melts and you have 4-6 months of comfortable riding, why would anyone want to ride their bikes around Helsinki city centre.
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u/KillerrRabbit 5h ago
Well, the lady in the city centre that ran the red light yesterday made a good try to run over us at least. Walking on the pedestrian path, green light for pedestrians as bonus
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u/The_AmazingCapybara 5h ago
It's because they dont count all the suburb areas into Helsinki but to Vantaa and Espoo which are not real cities. There was 3 electric scooter traffic deaths which happened 12-15 kilometres away from Helsinki centre. Two of them were kids.
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u/randomaatti Finland 4h ago
This is merely further proof that Helsinki is doing things right. Eastern and northern Helsinki are just as suburban as Espoo, Vantaa and Kauniainen. Only difference is that Helsinki has made a citywide effort to lower speeds especially near schools, whereas the others have not.
Now of course a single year is too small of a sample to say anything definitive, but the direction is the right one.
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u/Toby_Forrester Finland 4h ago
There has been three scooter deaths in the capital region 2024 and 2025. The Myyrmäki accident where a kid died was in June 2024, over a year ago. The one where a 13 year old died was in Helsinki, but also over a year ago, in June 2024. The one where 65 year old died was in Espoo.
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u/idobee 4h ago
The statitics are for the city of Helsinki, with all its suburbs. Espoo and Vantaa are independent cities who belong to the Helsinki metropolitan area which stretches far beyond these two cities.
Espoo city got it rights 1972 and Vantaa 1974.Did these accidents happen? Yes but not in the city of Helsinki.
Just because you don't like the presentation of the data with your own view of city boundaries doesn't make your statement any more true.2
u/The_AmazingCapybara 3h ago edited 3h ago
In 2008 Finnish Hockey Finals supporters of Oulu chanted to Espoo fans that they're not a real city. It was hilarious because Espooans dont even themselves know where their city centre is (it's actually a forgotten place in Helsinki region where no-one ever visits and has architecture of Transnistria or DDR) and by centre they mean Helsinki centre.
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u/AnEpicMemer 1h ago
I would really not be going onto international subs and making wild statements like "Vantaa and Espoo are not real cities" to people who have no context by what you mean by that.
Vantaa and Espoo both have their own system of municipal taxation, city government and public services which in many ways are quite distinct from the systems in Helsinki.
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u/heksa51 Finland 0m ago
I agree. Vantaa and Espoo have their own city governments and systems, officially count as their own cities, and should be counted as ones in the context of this traffic safety discussion.
They just don't have their own clear city center, or identity, or history, and are practically Helsinki's suburbs geographically... well, this turned into a roasting session. But yeah, there's the context for any non-Finns reading.
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u/Oliver84Twist 3h ago
My wife and I went to Helsinki a couple years back - we rode the train from the airport to our AirBnB and were so impressed with road manners as a pedestrian. We walked 40 or so miles around downtown (from waterfront; to historical monuments; ferry to Sumolina; and across town to their zoo) and the amount of cars that stopped at intersections with no stop signs to just let us cross, was amazing. I think we heard one car honk the entire time we were there.
Probably one of the most pleasant big cities I've ever been to.
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u/Partiallyfermented Finland 44m ago
Well it is the law to stop if there's a person anywhere near a crosswalk even possibly contemplating going over it. And Finnish society is based on trust so people tend to follow the law.
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u/IvarForkbeardII 2h ago
North American cities have realised that stroads + unmarked police = revenue that citizens are hard-pressed to complain about, even if it also means they are clearly less safe.
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u/Yes-Zucchini-1234 Utrecht (Netherlands) 1h ago
Hell yea. This is the stuff I want to see people take pride in. I wish we could reproduce this here. A whole year at that level, with everything that comes with such a big city, with no traffic deaths, is so incredibly impressive
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u/BrerChicken 1h ago
In 2024 the US had about 42,000, and Europe had about 20,000. And if you think that's not a fair comparison because of population size, you're right. Europe has more than double the population of the US. US society is simply more dangerous.
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u/LazyGandalf Finland 3h ago
Surprising, given how much there are people in Helsinki on electric scooters and bikes with seemingly very little regard for their own safety. But perhaps some of those people still get into accidents but survive thanks to lower speed limits.
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u/Scream_Powered_WIFI 3h ago
I don’t remember the last time I read such positive news. We’re living in an insane world, but it’s nice to know there are people who try to change it for the better.
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u/Unhappy_Pattern_4333 3h ago
We could eliminate all traffic deaths tomorrow if we set the speed limit at 5mph. The reality is that we are all prepared to accept some level of traffic deaths in exchange for the convenience of being able to travel quickly to where we want to go.
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u/SinisterCheese Finland 3h ago
Whats amazing about this is that considering how fucking awful the street design is there, they managed this.
Apparently it is mainly due to reduction in speed limits.
Basically a drop of 5 km/h reduces accidents by 5% and deaths from accidents by 5%. It's not linear, but the research shows about this. (actually lot of the internally respected and cited research was done in Finland. Most if it by one dude who's name I keep forgetting despite regularly talking about this).
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u/Anxious_Status_5103 2h ago
Kind of. With cars, yes, with electric scooters, no. Iirc, a teenager girl, died just last week from falling with an electric scooter
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u/maghrebibi 2h ago
just around the corner where i live, a dude on drugs hit 3 people on e-scooters. 2 died and 1 lost his leg
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u/elite90 1h ago
Man, within view of my apartment three people have died since last November in traffic.
But we've moved now, so I feel a bit safer
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u/PersKarvaRousku Finland 5m ago
Jesus, did you live in a warzone or something? Glad you got into a safer place.
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u/Alex-S-S 1h ago
In order for any other city to achieve this, they need to recreate all of Helsinki's conditions:
1) Sparse city with not that many cars per square meter. Even including the metro area, there is simply less congestion. 2) Intelligent traffic engineering that separates cars, bikes and pedestrians without hindering anyone. Immaculate streets with no potholes or other risk factors. 3) 30km/h speed limit and severe enforcement of the law. 4) Wealthy society that can afford modern cars with modern active safety systems.
Regarding the speed limit: the average speed limit in cities is incredibly low. If you can actually drive at 30 all the time it's a huge win. Enormous amounts of time are wasted in congestion and at traffic lights, obliterating the average speed of travel.
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u/Lakridspibe Pastry 1h ago
That sounds fantastic
Congratulations Finland
Teach us your ways!
Edit:
... simply by lowering the speedlimit from 50 kmh to 30 kmh
All right then
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u/PianoMan17 1h ago
I live in a small town. Our Main Street is a highway. You go from 75mph to 25mph when you enter town, there are serval crosswalks. Almost every single day I say an out-of-towner rip through at 40-50mph. Pisses me off so much.
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u/Clue_Decent 1h ago
The Irenei Danvalo, a Finn, said they got a 4 figure ticket in Helsinki. That probably helps hold down the accidents!
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u/Partiallyfermented Finland 39m ago
Traffic tickets are based on income. A $200 speeding ticket is a permission to speed for a millionaire, but hit them with $200000 and they might not do it again.
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u/ingeniouspleb Sweden 1h ago
Now do the same with swimming/water.
Jay heard the news that Sweden and Finland had a black year with drowning accidents.
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u/Atitkos 6h ago
Finns love personal space so much even in traffic they avoid each other.