Average speeds declining in province of Uusimaa

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The average traffic speeds in the province of Uusimaa and in the Greater Helsinki area have declined since 2006.
      ”In four years, the situation has clearly calmed down, and it is by no means attributable to the fact that congestion has increased but to other factors”, says Jorma Helin, a traffic expert at the Finnish Road Administration.
     
Helin has compared the information from the measuring points of the Road Administration covering four Novembers from 2006 to 2009.
      At no measuring points have the average speeds increased, while in some places the situation has remained the same. Here and there the average speeds seem to have declined - sometimes only slightly but sometimes more, Helin reports.
      The proportion of those who were found to be exceeding the permitted speed limit by 10 km/h - which leads to a petty fine - has dropped by as much as 10% over the past four years.
     
Inspector Dennis Pasterstein from the Helsinki Traffic Police has compared the figures gathered by the Finnish Road Administration for Septembers from 2006 to 2009.
      The comparison indicates that the average speed in the Helsinki area has dropped two kilometres per hour.
      Even though the change seems small, it is significant when it comes to traffic safety. Statistically, a 1% decline in the average speed can reduce the number of traffic deaths by 2-4 %.
      For the time being, it is difficult to say anything about the national implications of the new stricter survellance criteria introduced by the Finnish police in October.
     
According to Inspector Pasterstein, there are many underlying factors contributing to the positive trend in the Greater Helsinki area.
      The recession has a positive impact on traffic safety, as it is bound to decrease traffic density and because people are likely to avoid risks.
      Moreover, a number of roads have been repaired, and even some vehicles have improved.
     
Another factor to the same effect is that surveillance has been stepped up considerably. In the metropolitan area, the police have applied much stronger criteria since 2007, while in other parts of the country the policy has been more lenient. Today the interference threshold is the same in the entire country.
      The inspector reports that a few day ago the Helsinki Police Traffic Safety Unit had sent a total of 55,000 traffic fines or written cautions this year for committing a speeding violation. In comparison, the figure for the entire last year was 43,000.
      In 2006, the total number of vehicles driving past the cameras was 64,000, while the corresponding figure by December 3rd was 3.3 million.
      By the end of this year the surveillance cameras will have been active for 1.5 million minutes, while the figure for 2006 was 30,000.
      In Pasterstein’s opinion, there is a reversed correlation between surveillance and the trend of speeds: when one grows the other declines.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Police to monitor Helsinki´s bus lanes next week (18.9.2009)
  Survey shows half of drivers exceed speed limits on Finnish main roads (3.9.2009)

Links:
  Finnish Road Administration

Helsingin Sanomat