City of Helsinki removes 2,000 abandoned cars every year

Old crocks may stand by roadside for years on end

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A rusty white Suzuki stands forlornly inside a construction site enclosure on Aleksis Kiven Katu in Helsinki. A man living nearby confirms the car has stood there abandoned for at least two years.
      In the next block sits a Citroën that - judging by the dust it has collected - has not been driven any time recently. Past the Sturenkatu intersection the streetside is decorated by a Fiat, also covered with a layer of dust, and by a Ford that has fallen victim to a rear-end collision. A silvery Volkswagen nearby does not even have any licence-plates.
      Further down the road a recovery vehicle flashes its yellow warning light. A traffic warden instructs the truck driver: "That one goes, and that one!"
      "There must be at least ten abandoned cars on this street", traffic warden Leena Jokinen explains. "They have stood here parked illegally for quite some time now."
      "Totally useless cars we aim to remove quickly. If the car still has licence plates, we give the owner a bit more time to react."
     
Owing to its relatively secluded location, Aleksis Kiven Katu seems to have become a regular graveyard for abandoned cars. According to the traffic warden, many of these cars belong to one and the same owner.
      "The same owner's cars can also be found abandoned in Munkkivuori and Haaga. They are all registered in the name of the same company and they are all full of junk. Nobody seems to know what their purpose is."
     
The City of Helsinki's problem with the abandoned vehicles is even more widespread than that. The first autumn frosts, in particular, cause many old vehicles - "bought as a set of summer wheels " - to cash in their chips once and for all.
      Every year the city removes about 2,000 vehicles to their final resting place in the Tattarinsuo depot.
      "This is an ongoing problem", explains Pekka Holopainen, head of the Street Division of the City of Helsinki Public Works Department.
      A registered letter is sent to the owner of a vehicle, and he is given three months to react. After that, the car is classified as abandoned, it becomes property of the city, and in all probability it will be crushed at the breaker's yard.
      "About 5-10 percent of the cars are sold to scrap merchants holding a valid environmental licence to be sold on as spare parts."
      "The owner can reclaim his car from the depot in Tattarisuo if he is willing to pay the cost of removal and storage."
     
The fate of vehicles unfit for the road is more straightforward. Around 600 cars are immediately scrapped every year.
      According to a year-old law, cars and vans can now be delivered to collection centres to be scrapped without a charge. "This has reduced the number of cars picked up from the street by about 20 percent", Holopainen estimates.
     
In addition to removing cars permanently, the City of Helsinki Street Division has to move around 9,000 cars every year out of the way for street maintenance purposes. Often these cars are just shifted to the other side of the street.
      The spring is the busiest time: gaining access for the clearance of the winter gritting gravel can involve around 400 such moves a day. Signs are put up well in advance, but they tend to be ignored until it is too late.


Links:
  City of Helsinki Public Works Department Street Division Vehicle Tow-Away

Helsingin Sanomat