Winter speed limits to be tightened

Minister approves reductions from 100km/hour to 80km/hour on several hundred kilometres of highway

print this

This winter will see changes to the seasonal speed limits put in place on Finnish roads. The adjustments are particularly weighted towards the busier highways of Western and Southern Finland. New 80km/hour limits will be in force on between 600 and 800 kilometres of two-lane roads that previously permitted a maximum speed of 100km/hour.
      The road regions of the Finnish Road Administration (Finnra) will decide by the beginning of October precisely which stretches of highway will see reductions in the maximum speed allowed. Decisions will be based on the volume of traffic and the measured level of safety on the road sections. Some limits of below 80km/hour are in prospect on narrow sections of main roads.
     
The Ministry of Transport and Communications has handed down the new recommendations to Finnra as part of the follow-up measures in the wake of March’s catastrophic bus crash at Konginkangas, and with a view to reducing winter accidents. The old 100km/hour limits will remain in force on around 2,200 kilometres of road, particularly in areas such as Northern and Eastern Finland, where traffic volumes are generally low.
      Motorways will not be affected, except in so far as these roads already see their limit reduced from the 120km/hour ceiling in the summer months to 100km/hour in the winter. Other highways with a central barrier or central reservation between the carriageways will also be unaffected, together with road sections that already have real-time variable speed-limits (connected to roadside units monitoring local conditions).
      The Minister of Transport Leena Luhtanen (SDP) elected to follow a more moderate line than the working party that drafted the new limits. She commented on Friday that the changes are in no sense dramatic, but that the roads targeted in the reductions have been carefully screened and seen to be dangerous and in need of lower speeds.
      Luhtanen also noted that any decisions on speed limits have to take account of public opinion, which seldom relishes lower limits.
     
In the course of the planning process, it was also suggested that trucks should all have an upper speed limit of 70km/hour in the winter months, but this was abandoned. The intended reduction was seen as lowering the risk of accidents involving large trucks, but at the same time it was acknowledged that it would increase transport costs and would also slow down the overall traffic flow.
      The winter restrictions are in force from November until the end of February. The new tighter regulations will be deployed for the next two winters, after which the matter will come up for possible re-appraisal.
      There will also be increases in the amount of automatic speed monitoring on Finnish roads. At present around 850 kilometres of road have camera surveillance of speeds. In the course of the next five years this will rise to around 2,500 km.
     
Interest groups varied in their response to the speed-limit changes. Seppo Sainio, Managing Director of Finnish Transport and Logistics SKAL (formerly the Finnish Trucking Association), welcomed the moderate line, while Pasi Nieminen, head of the Automobile and Touring Club of Finland (Autoliitto), argued that speeding cases increase when the winter limits are in force, as drivers do not regard the limits as justified in all cases.
      Road conditions in the south of the country in particular can be "summer-like" during the period of winter limits, and drivers do not feel motivated to slow down. Nieminen would have preferred to see more emphasis placed on winter road maintenance.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Summer speed limits to be raised just in time for Easter (6.4.2004)
  At least 23 dead in bus crash in Central Finland (19.3.2004)

Links:
  Finnish Road Administration pages
  Autoliitto, the Automobile and Touring Club of Finland
  Finnish Transport and Logistics SKAL
  Ministry of Transport and Communications
  Police: Traffic Safety

Helsingin Sanomat