American pedal-pusher sees Helsinki as a good biking city

Finnish capital has invited a dozen experts from Washington to visit and forge contacts

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By Ville Seuri
     
      Your average Helsinki cyclist often likes to grumble about this and that. There are not enough bicycle paths, and those that do exist are not maintained properly. And angry motorists turn every trip to work into an extreme sports adventure.
     
With an outsider’s eyes, however, everything looks rather different - particularly if the outsider comes from the USA, the promised land of motorists.
      ”In general, everything appears to be well organised, and there are numerous bicycle paths, even alongside main roads", says Eric Gilliland, speaking in a coffee marquee at the Market Square.
      Gilliland is the Executive Director of the Washington Area Bicyclist Association (WABA). The head of the association, which has more than 7,000 members, has just finished his two-hour cycling ride in the central city area.
      ”Only the streetcar rails are a bit tricky. And motorists are a little aggressive, but not as bad as in Washington”, Gilliland says.
      Gilliland was invited to Helsinki by the city itself. Petri Sipilä, the chairman of the Helsinki Cyclists (in Finnish ”Helsingin Polkupyöräilijät” or HePo), is sitting next to Gilliland.
      HePo is a volunteer organisation which aims to promote safe and convenient cycling in Finland, especially around Helsinki, and Sipilä is acting as one of the hosts of the two-wheeled American guest.
     
Gilliland’s visit is a part of the City of Helsinki’s project to bring in a dozen specialists from Washington D.C.. These experts represent a number of different areas.
      During their one-week visits, each of the guests get to know the Finnish capital, forging useful contacts with key people - or at least that is what the capital hopes.
      In addition to Gilliland, six other guests from Washington D.C. are now visiting Helsinki.
      ”We have already noticed that interesting thoughts have emerged during the visitors’ meetings with Helsinki people”, says Project Manager Mikko Leisti.
      ”In the long run, we plan to create various forms of cooperation between the two cities”, he adds.
     
During their visit, the guests are keeping a journal on the website known as My Helsinki (see the links below).
      Some students from the University of Art and Design Helsinki will take pictures during the visits, and in May an exhibition based on this material is to be opened at the Embassy of Finland in Washington.
      The organising of the visits costs Helsinki around EUR 30,000, while the expenditure of the entire project including the exhibition and some seminars will amount to EUR 500,000 in the course of the year.
     
Washington was chosen to cooperate with the Finnish capital, as the population of the Washington Metropolitan Area is estimated to be more or less the same as that in the Greater Helsinki area.
      However, bicycling in D.C. is pretty different from pedalling in Helsinki.
      A large number of people come to the city to work every day and the streets are crammed with cars, which is why Washington is investing generously in the development of cycling.
     
”The agency in charge of public transport has five employees who are all concentrating on cycling. Moreover, the city gives us USD 250,000 for traffic education annually”, Gilliland reports.
      Sipilä is watching him with something approaching shock and awe.
      The Helsinki City Planning Department has only one employee specialising in cycling, while the Helsinki Cyclists do not have any salaried workers.
      It looks like the Finnish capital has also something to learn.
     
Among the specialists whom the City of Helsinki has invited to visit the Finnish capital are for example New Technology Organizer and Marketer Scott Goodstein, Organic Cuisine Pioneer Nora Pouillon, and Urban Forester Marc Buscaino.
      Scott Goodstein is the CEO of Revolution Messaging, a firm that specialises in social networking and mobile services. As External Online Director for Obama for America, he created the campaign's social networking strategy, building out Facebook, MySpace, and YouTube pages and about a dozen or so other very specific social networks.
      In 2004, Goodstein organised Rock Against Bush, a project mobilising punk rock musicians against the Presidential campaign of George W. Bush, the then incumbent President of the USA.
      Nora Pouillon is the executive chef of Restaurant Nora, the first certified organic restaurant in the country. She is a pioneer and champion of organic, environmentally conscious cuisine.
      Marc Buscaino works as the Executive Director of Casey Trees, a nonprofit organisation established in 2001 to restore, enhance, and protect the trees of the nation’s capital. The organisation trains people to plant and care for trees, and its first major initiative in 2002 inventoried all of the District’s more than 130,000 trees.
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 4.4.2009


Previously in HS International Edition:
  About 25,000 commute by bicycle to centre of Helsinki in summer (16.5.2007)

Links:
  Helsinki Cyclists
  My Helsinki Guest Eric Gilliland: ”Cycling Advocate and Enthusiast”
  My Helsinki Guest Scott Goodstein
  My Helsinki Guest Nora Pouillon
  My Helsinki Guest Mark Buscaino
  University of Art and Design Helsinki
  Washington Area Bicyclist Association (WABA)
  Journey Planner for Cycling (YTV)

VILLE SEURI / Helsingin Sanomat
ville.seuri@hs.fi