It’s almost a tradition already – in the Christmas night I take my bike and go somewhere in the city, to feel the unique atmosphere, which happens only once in a year.
Posts tagged ‘beautiful Helsinki’
December 25th, 2015
December 20th, 2015
Less than a week to Christmas. It’s +11, rainy and windy. I remember how people depreciated global warming 5-10 years ago, saying that “no problem, at least we’ll have decent summers here in the North”.
A more accurate term was developed since then – climate change instead of global warming. This means for Southern Finland, for example, that there will be the same windy and short summers, but winter will almost disappear, making room for the gray misery, lasting 6 months. And no, we’ll not have blossoming flowers in April like in Holland, at least for the coming tens of years.
There is still a hope. Just before Paris Climate Change Conference a march against climate change was organized in many cities. This is how it looked like in Helsinki:
November 16th, 2015
Once again I was convinced that Helsinki is a great city to live in. Last Friday I found a pair of discounted fatbike tyres in the XXL Kluuvi outdoor store and rushed to fetch them in the middle of the day, instead of lunch.
I go almost everywhere by bicycle, as you might have noticed, but in this case I didn’t know if tyres are folding and I would be able to carry them on bike. I decided to take tram instead.
The whole operation took only 45 minutes. There are two tram lines, connecting my workplace and the store, which mean that I needed to wait the tram no more than a couple of minutes both on the way there and back. Trams run smoothly and the fair share of time I spent walking through the floors of the shopping center, finding the right shelf, then coming back to the lower floor and queuing in front of the cash-desk. The whole trip cost me only 1,5 € – a tram ticket for 60 minutes. No stress, no parking fees and a possibility to look at the city and people as tram is moving.
How it’s related with Hämeentie, you might ask. Well, my trip started and ended there. I work nearby and I know the place well. This is how the street looks now:
And this is how it will look in the future:
Hämeentie is a good place for a tram passenger, as you can see from the beginning of this entry. But it’s one of the unsafest streets in Helsinki for cycling. It’s repulsive for pedestrians as well. There are 20 000 of cars moving during the day through Hämeentie, causing constant noise and air pollution. Walking is not pleasant along Hämeentie and no restaurant has a terrace there. I avoid this street all the time, which is a pity because I avoid also nice small shops, located in the area.
The situation with Hämeentie is even more ridiculous because only 20% of households in the area own a car (and this doesn’t mean that all of them use it every day). People shouldn’t suffer from the absolutely unnecessary cars going through. This year 12 000 citizens signed a petition, demanding removing of pass-through car traffic from Hämeentie and creating bicycle roads along it.
City Planning Department made a scheme, which is simple and brilliant: current two lanes (one for buses and one for cars) will be merged into one (for buses and service traffic) and a bicycle road will be built between driving lane and pavement, separated from both of them. City council will approve (or reject) this plan tomorrow, on 17th November. I hope that they’ll approve it, but I am happy anyway that times are changing.
Last time the question of Hämeentie was discussed in 2009 and city council’s response was that there is no space for a bicycle lane on that street. At that time the idea of removing pass-through traffic was perhaps too new. Now it’s reality. More and more cities will prefer better space for citizens over smoother car flow.
Maybe it will take some time until we’ll see the changes implemented. Even if the city council approves the plan of the new Hämeentie tomorrow, there will be perhaps some outraging feedback from the local business owners. I believe that most of them already understand that their customers walk and use tram, but some still believe that cutting the car traffic will affect their business. Oh God, how? There are currently no parking spots at all along Hämeentie. And there are groundless fears like this in every city, which decides to reclaim public space back from cars to people, so I hope that Helsinki will survive this as well.
Thanks to everyone, who backed the Hämeentie petition! And to everyone who dares to cycle in the flow of fast-moving buses, making people aware of the problem!
Images by Helsinki Planning Department and Google Street View
November 26th, 2014
Time is going fast. I used to live in 5 places in Helsinki already. All of them are dear to me, but Muusantori was one of the greatest.
I just want to share one beautiful October morning with you, when I cycled from Muusantori to work. I rode the same route around 500 times. This wonderful commute is one of the answers to the question why I moved to Helsinki.
September 24th, 2010
Уже больше месяца я живу в Хельсинки. Это очень дружественный к велосипедистам город, как и вся Финляндия в целом. Хельсинки – замечательное место для велоэкскурсий, отсюда стартуют многие национальные веломаршруты. Я обязательно буду еще писать о велопутешествиях по Финляндии, но начать хотел бы с репортажа о состоявшемся 22 сентября Международном дне без автомобилей и велопробеге “Критическая масса” (проводится каждый месяц, но 22 сентября принять в нем участие было совсем идейно правильно :).
Еще по пути к Esplanaadi ехал по велодорожке за людьми, которые явно направлялись туда же, куда и я. Несмотря на не очень теплую сентябрьскую погоду, участников велопробега было много.
За несколько минут, которые оставались до старта, можно было поразглядывать чужие велосипеды…
…или укомплектованные кучей электроники полицейские мотоциклы…
…или пофотографировать немного в стиле bike fashion ;)
