Studded tyres cause up to half of all street dust. Street dust, which is harmful to health, is generated when studs wear down the pavement. Helsinki aims to raise the share accounted for by friction tyres of all winter tyres to 70 per cent by 2030. The current share of friction tyres is around 45 per cent. This share has increased by around two percentage points per year over the last ten years.
In Helsinki, the use of friction tyres has been promoted through extensive communications about their benefits and by carrying out a pilot ban on studded tyres on Lönnrotinkatu. The City of Helsinki explored ways to further promote the use of studless winter tyres in Helsinki.
Other Nordic countries have increased the use of friction tyres through measures such as studded tyre fees and bans, purchase subsidies and communications. The City of Helsinki assessed the suitability of these measures in Helsinki in terms of feasibility and effectiveness in particular.
According to the review, the most effective way to increase the use of friction tyres would be studded tyre fees, as they can be extended over a wide geographical area more easily than bans. Unlike a ban, a fee is not an absolute instrument of control, and the social impact of a fee would be less severe. In Norwegian cities, where fees have been in use for a long time, they have significantly contributed to reducing the share of studded tyres. However, current Finnish legislation does not allow for the introduction of studded tyre fees.
The measures deemed to be the most feasible are already in place in Helsinki: street-specific studded tyre bans, preference for friction tyres in public procurement, and related communications. Another potentially feasible measure identified in the review is changes to parking pricing.
In terms of control, no measure is without its own problems. Studded tyre fees, street-specific bans and differentiated parking charges, for example, would require comprehensive control and, potentially, technical solutions.
Reducing street dust is a key objective affecting air quality, both in Helsinki and in other cities. The new European Union Ambient Air Quality Directive will make the limit values for maximum concentrations of air pollutants in ambient air significantly stricter by 2030. However, the implementation of the new limit values should already be monitored now.
A particular challenge for Helsinki, as for many other Finnish cities, is to meet the new daily limit value for street dust, or respirable particles. These particles cause significant health problems in addition to nuisance and irritation.