This week construction work began on one of the busiest roads in Helsinki: Mannerheimintie (named after Field Marshal Mannerheim, (mis)remembered as the military hero who helped ensure Finland’s independence). About 5km in length, it runs south to north from the very centre of the city to one of the main routes north to the suburbs and the rest of the country.
As part of the work, the city plan to remove a number of pedestrian crossings from the road. They claim that there are too many crossings that don’t have traffic lights, and that these pose a risk of injury and death to pedestrians because the street has so many lanes (2 on each side, plus tram tracks in the middle). Yes, once again the crossings are the problem, not the things that actually cause the injury and death.
But, get this: besides outright removing some crossings, they also plan to change the status of others from pedestrian crossings to “crossing places”, where car drivers will have right of way. No joke. In the city’s mind, the way to solve the problem of dangerous crossings is to remove any extra duty of care that other road users might have had towards pedestrians and cyclists. It’s completely insane.
It also runs against so much of Helsinki’s explicit branding as a 15-minute city and as “the world’s most functioning city”, whatever that means. Mannerheimintie has multiple tram lanes that converge on it and loads of bus routes – there is little need to be driving a private car along it.
Apparently there are plans to make tens of these crossing places around the city. Their advocates argue that there are too many existing pedestrian crossings, and that, in and of themselves, they don’t make crossing the road safe. Well, obviously not, but as if the best solution is to get rid of them, rather than to ask exactly why crossing the road might be so unsafe.
Argh, I’m exploding in a mixture of fury and flabbergast writing this.
Here’s a link to a news article on the construction work. It’s in Finnish, but it contains a video at the bottom showing the pedestrian crossing removal/rebranding: Helsingin historian suurin ja vaikein työmaa alkaa Mannerheimintiellä – katso kartalta, miten sen voi kiertää.
