Helsinki simply went a complete yr—between July 2024 and July 2025—and not using a single site visitors loss of life.
Examine that to Washington, D.C., a metropolis with roughly the identical inhabitants of near 700,000. In D.C., 52 individuals died in site visitors in 2024, together with a 12-year-old hit by a automotive in a crosswalk and a visiting doctoral pupil who was hit by a automotive whereas using his bike.
Helsinki wasn’t at all times as protected: the Eighties, the town usually had round 1,000 injury-causing automotive crashes every year, and 20 to 30 fatalities. However the metropolis has been working to make its streets safer for many years. Right here’s what labored.
[Photo: George Pachantouris]
Slashing velocity limits
On the vast majority of streets in Helsinki, the velocity restrict is now 30 kilometers per hour, or roughly 19 miles an hour. That’s down from 50 kilometers per hour (30 mph) within the Nineteen Seventies. Within the early 2000s, the typical velocity restrict dropped to 40 kilometers an hour (25 mph). Since then, the town has repeatedly added 30-kilometers-an-hour zones, together with a latest rollout close to faculties. Round 60% of metropolis streets now have that velocity restrict.
With decrease speeds, any crashes that do occur are much less extreme. If somebody is strolling throughout the road and hit by a automotive driving 30 miles an hour, they’re as a lot as eight occasions extra more likely to die than in the event that they’re hit at 20 miles an hour.
Town additionally went farther and shrank automotive lanes so drivers would really feel uncomfortable rushing. “Decreasing velocity limits isn’t at all times sufficient,” says Roni Utriainen, site visitors engineer on the Metropolis of Helsinki’s City Setting Division. Most of its automotive lanes are actually a bit greater than 11 toes huge; some are narrower. (Within the U.S., lanes are usually at the very least 12 toes huge.) On some streets, timber are planted near the sting of the street to assist it seem even narrower. A Johns Hopkins examine argues that shrinking American automotive lanes would additionally assist scale back crashes.
Automated site visitors cameras—and fairer fines
Dozens of cameras all through Helsinki catch speeders and ship automated tickets. A examine in 2023 at one enforcement website discovered that the cameras work nicely; the variety of drivers that had been excessively rushing dropped by greater than half.
In Finland, unsafe drivers are fined based mostly on their earnings. If somebody’s driving greater than 20 kilometers (about 12 mph) per hour over the velocity restrict, their ticket will scale with their each day disposable earnings. In 2023, Anders Wiklöf, a multimillionaire, was fined €121,000 for driving 30 kilometers an hour (about 18.5 mph) above the velocity restrict. (A couple of jurisdictions within the U.S. examined comparable income-based fines prior to now, however discovered the system too complicated and politically unpopular.)
Enforcement of site visitors legal guidelines is a key a part of lowering deadly crashes. San Francisco has a Imaginative and prescient Zero purpose, like Helsinki, aiming for zero site visitors deaths. However whereas San Francisco’s purpose, adopted in 2014, was to achieve zero site visitors deaths by 2024, fatalities really grew within the metropolis by greater than 50%. A latest report discovered that lack of enforcement from the police was a key issue within the failure.
[Photo: Jose Noel Marenco/Unsplash]
Higher bike infrastructure and public transit
Round a 3rd of commuters in Helsinki now use public transit, whereas 36% stroll and 11% bike. That final result wasn’t assured. Within the Nineteen Sixties, as automotive possession was rapidly rising, the town thought-about an American-style plan of razing its downtown, taking out its streetcar system, and constructing 200-plus-miles of highways. Voters rejected the proposal, and public transit stored rising.
Town continues to put money into public transit and lately added new tram strains. It’s additionally persevering with to construct new separated bike lanes, with a deliberate community from all main residential areas to the town heart. “Some individuals don’t even have to personal a automotive as a result of there’s a ok public transit system and so they can stroll or cycle,” says Utriainen.
With fewer automobiles on the street, and carefully-considered infrastructure for individuals strolling and biking, it’s safer, unsurprisingly, to stroll or bike. Plus, having extra pedestrians and cyclists on the street implies that drivers know that they must look out for them.
[Photo: Julius Jansson/Unsplash]
Steady enchancment
Every time a deadly crash occurs in Finland, a workforce of specialists investigates the incident, together with site visitors engineers. They appear not solely at what the driving force and sufferer did, however how the surroundings contributed. If a specific intersection is unsafe—and particularly if it’s been the location of repeated accidents—the town takes steps to revamp it.
Town continues to face new challenges. The variety of massive SUVs is rising, for instance, and bigger automobiles usually tend to trigger severe accidents or kill somebody in a crash. “That’s one thing we’ll want to take a look at sooner or later,” says Utriainen.
Nonetheless, it’s clear that the general method is working. In 2019, Helsinki had no site visitors deaths for pedestrians or cyclists; this previous yr was the primary with no site visitors deaths in any respect, together with individuals in automobiles. And for American cities which are struggling to achieve Imaginative and prescient Zero targets, it gives proof that issues can change.
