Helsinki has not recorded a single traffic fatality in the past 12 months, city and police officials confirmed this week.
The city’s most recent fatal accident occurred in early July 2024 on Keinulaudantie in the city’s Kontula district.
Authorities are calling the situation exceptional.
“A lot of factors contributed to this, but speed limits are one of the most important,” said Roni Utriainen, a traffic engineer with the city’s Urban Environment Division.
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According to Utriainen, more than half of Helsinki’s streets now have a speed limit of 30 km/h. Fifty years ago, that proportion featured 50 km/h limits.
Earlier this summer, Helsinki decided to lower speed limits near schools to 30 km/h, a measure that is set to take effect as the academic year begins.
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speed limits are one of the most important
I’ve seen a few YT videos that tell you the exact opposite. If you design the streets to feel “dangerous” to the driver, they will naturally pay attention, slow down and make the streets safer for everyone. You could plant some more tress, make the streets narrower etc.
Sure, people can’t drive to places as fast, but that’s not really a problem. If more people decide to use public transport instead, it’s just going to make the city nicer for everyone.
Just to get the broader picture, here is a world map displaying the deaths from road injuries.
The number of deaths from road injuries appears to be highest in China and India, Europe is among the regions with lowest numbers.
Unfortunately, the data used in that map don’t appear to be corrected for population size.
So the high numbers in China and India don’t really mean much without some additional context.The map on Wikipedia is based on deaths per 100k inhabitants, which seems more useful for gauging overall road mortality rate.
These traffic engineers are doing a great job.
The other engineers the country got enriched with not so much.
