Helsinki metropolitan municipalities’ policy makers – best wishes from Enemmistö ry.

TRAFFIC RESPONSIBILITES

Enemmistö ry. presents its visions for traffic improvements for capital area around city of Helsinki.

Public transport
Dedicated bus lanes for all places where buses are delayed by rush-hour traffic. Enforcement transferred to municipalities.
Tram network must be extended. Trams must preserve their place as central part of urban transportation. Trams and buses must be given priority at traffic-light controlled junctions.
New buses must be less polluting and quieter. A larger proportion of buses must be of low-floor design.
Public transport must provide an adequate frequency level to be an attractive service.
Tax income must be used to fund improvements. Ticket prices should be frozen for a few years.

Footpaths
Helsinki’s centre must become its residents’ communal ”living-room”. People should be able to walk around without disturbance from traffic. Pedestrianisation should become a reality as envisaged in a 1991 public petition.
The university campus should form an attractiv car-free zone.
Footpaths must not be narrowed. Cyclists should not forced to use footpaths where their own dedicated pathways are missing.
Continuity of cycleways must be secured. Busy cycle traffic must be separated from both vehicles and pedestrians, e.g. by different surfaces, levels or simple obstacles.
Covered and secure parking facilities for bicycles must be provided at railway and metro stations.

Private cars
Car use in the centre must be reduced, to reduce emissions, noise and traffic jams.
New road building does not reduce traffic elsewhere, but leads instead to an overall increase, therefore new roads in the centre must be decisively rejected.
The City-Centre Tunnel should not be built otherwise traffic would begin to fill the roads on two levels. Any tunnel that is built should be solely to allow entry to underground car parks and be tied to reducing street-level parking and increasing predestrianisation.
Residential areas must have traffic levels and speeds managed, e.g. by humps, raising pedestrian crossings and physical obstacles.
Road tolls and similar ”user pays” solutions should be used to reduce road traffic in the centre. Income gained must be directed to developing public transport.

Parking
In the last few years the city-centre has become a double-deck car park, therefore no new car parks should be constructed.
Parking in central areas should always be chargeable. Car parking at stations should be increased.
Parking on bus lanes, pathways and parkland must stop. Parking fines and resources for their enforcement should be increased. Parking clamps should be brought into use.

Regional solutions
No new massive office-building projects in the city-centre if they are shown to cause increased vehicle use should be built. Traffic increases should also be evaluated for projects in other central areas.
Local rail traffic must be improved. Extra trains should be procured and signalling improved. Extra tracks should be built to Espoon Keskus and the Martinlaakso route extended to run via the airport to the Main Line at Tikkurila.
Building of the Lansimetro – the extension to Matinkyla must be speeded-up. The route should be moved to run via the office complexes at Keilalahti. The route should be attractive to passengers and therefore not built wholly in a tunnel.
Cross-town connections must be improved. The route of the Joker express bus service should also be moved to run via the office complexes at Keilalahti. New road connections for the service should be dedicated for public transport only.
Public transport connections to recreation areas, sports halls and events should be improved to ensure visitors are not reliant on using private cars.
Malmi airfield should be transferred away from its central location to reduce noise and safety issues. Additional residential areas with good public transport connections could take its place.

Enemmistö ry.