How does Helsinki intend to make cycling more appealing? Head of Traffic and Street Planning Reetta Putkonen and Cycling Coordinator Oskari Kaupinmäki know the answer.
Just a few moments ago, Oskari Kaupinmäki cycled from Kaisaniemi Park down to the Kaisantunneli underpass running under Helsinki Central Railway Station and emerged at the corner of the Sanomatalo building, at the start of the Baana pedestrian and cycling route.
“The underpass has shortened the distance between Hakaniemi and the city centre by almost a kilometre,” says Kaupinmäki, who works as the City of Helsinki's cycling coordinator.
The Kaisantunneli underpass, which facilitates cycling in the city centre, turned one year old in May. Reetta Putkonen also enjoys cycling.
“Cycling is a natural part of my everyday life. It is a very convenient and easy way of getting around the city, just like walking and public transport. My children have always travelled to school and hobbies independently,” says the City of Helsinki’s head of transport and street planning, contemplating her relationship to mobility.
Sustainable mobility is a topical issue, as the City of Helsinki wants to increase the modal shares of walking and cycling. At present, the modal share of cycling is 11%, but the City aims to increase it to 20% by 2030, which is also when Helsinki aims to achieve carbon neutrality. But how does Helsinki intend to make cycling more appealing?
Putkonen and Kaupinmäki are just the right people to answer this question. Putkonen is the head of the City’s Transport and Street Planning Unit, the responsibilities of which range from big-picture transport planning to the implementation of traffic arrangements on individual streets. Kaupinmäki is responsible for Helsinki’s Bicycle Action Plan at the city level.
Putkonen starts by saying that these days transport is always planned as a whole, covering walking, cycling, public transport, driving and logistics.
“The more people we convince to travel using their own muscles or by public transport, the smoother traffic becomes overall,” Putkonen says. By this, she means that if the number of cars on the roads decreases, driving and public transport services will become smoother and cycling and walking will become safer, for example.
The City’s key means of promoting cycling have to do with constructing convenient cycling routes and safe crossings. Their construction is different than it was in Finland from the 1960s to the 1980s, when both cyclists and pedestrians were put on two-way combined cycling and pedestrian corridors. Since then, experience has shown that this is unsafe; the environment must be considered from the point of view of the weakest users, as Kaupinmäki puts it. Helsinki’s approach is modelled after Denmark and the Netherlands, which both have strong cycling cultures.
Nowadays, the streets of the main road transport network are designed as arterials, and the high-volume cycling traffic following them is physically separated from pedestrian and motor traffic using red asphalt, level differences and pavement, depending on the location. On the local streets branching off from these arterials, cycling traffic is typically directed to the roadway.
“Local streets see much lower volumes of motor traffic, so cycling on the roadway is safe. This solution works in a growing city where space is often limited. In Helsinki city centre, you can see a lot of cyclists on Annankatu, for example,” Kaupinmäki says.
Cycling city residents may still need some time to get used to the fact that when turning left, you have to go through two traffic lights: first you need to cross the street and only then turn left. In Copenhagen, which is known as a cycling city, this is a well-known fact.
For example, if a person living in Tapanila is going to the city centre by train, they can leave their bicycle at the station’s bike racks, which allow you to secure your bicycle by its frame. The City has already built a lot of these types of bicycle parking facilities all over Helsinki.
The already mentioned Baana, also called the city centre Baana, which runs from Helsinki Central Railway Station to Länsilinkki in Ruoholahti, is probably the most well-known of Helsinki’s Baana cycling routes. To complement it, the City is also building a special Baana network consisting of fast and high-quality cycling routes between city districts. The network includes the already completed Viikki Baana, which runs from Oulunkylä via Viikki to Roihupelto, and the Northern Baana, Pasila Baana and Eastern Baana, which are currently under construction. In addition to these, there are also a number of other Baana routes being planned.
So far, the City has built 28 kilometres of Baana routes out of a target of 140 kilometres, which may sound slow to some.
“Investment appropriations have only now reached the level proposed in the plans presented over ten years ago. As part of the construction of the cycling arrangements, the streets added to the network are also renovated,” Putkonen explains.
Helsinki aims to connect all of its major districts and employment hubs to the cycling network, but it is also developing cycling based on the idea of combining it with rail transport. Putkonen emphasises that Helsinki is a rail transport network city, the train stations of which should be easy to reach on foot and by bicycle – and provide parking for bicycles.
“For example, if a person living in Tapanila is going to the city centre by train, they can leave their bicycle at the station’s bike racks, which allow you to secure your bicycle by its frame. The City has already built a lot of these types of bicycle parking facilities all over Helsinki,” Putkonen says.
Text: Katja Alaja
Photos: Miikka Pirinen
This story was published in Helsinki-lehti magazine, issue 1/2025.
