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Helsinki records zero traffic deaths for full year

(www.helsinkitimes.fi)
1163 points DaveZale | 10 comments | 30 Jul 25 16:08 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source | bottom
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tlogan ◴[02 Aug 25 20:57 UTC] No.44771408[source]▶
Maybe Helsinki isn’t special: just fewer cars. And they apparently only 21% of daily trips used a private car.

Helsinki has about 3x fewer vehicles per capita than the average U.S. city. So it’s not surprising it’s safer since fewer cars mean fewer chances of getting hit by one. Plus their cars are much smaller.

In fact, there are probably plenty of U.S. towns and cities with similar number of cars that have zero traffic deaths (quick search says that Jersey City, New Jersey has zero traffic deaths in 2022).

So maybe it’s not about urban planning genius or Scandinavian magic. Maybe it’s just: fewer things that can kill you on the road.

I wonder how the numbers will change when majority of cars are autonomous.

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1. rimbo789 ◴[02 Aug 25 21:05 UTC] No.44771469[source]▶
Itll for sure get worse once most cars are autonomous and are programmed badly
replies(1): >>44771731 #
2. egypturnash ◴[02 Aug 25 21:31 UTC] No.44771731[source]▶
Every time I see a Cybertruck while I'm on my bike I am stunned at how badly that thing is designed, it's got a hood higher than my head and a front that slopes backwards as it goes down, so that anything it hits is just naturally shoved under it, this is a machine built for vehicular homicide. How the fuck did that get allowed on the road at all.
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3. levocardia ◴[02 Aug 25 21:42 UTC] No.44771832[source]▶
FWIW Cybertruck (and all other teslas) have a forward collision warning system that can detect pedestrians and automatically brake. Not perfectly of course, but better than other cars. Large cars are not the primary driver of increased pedestrian deaths in the USA, either.
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4. globalise83 ◴[02 Aug 25 21:59 UTC] No.44771978[source]▶
It's not allowed in Europe, and I very much doubt it ever will be.
5. derektank ◴[02 Aug 25 22:16 UTC] No.44772098{3}[source]▶
>Large cars are not the primary driver of increased pedestrian deaths in the USA, either.

What is the primary cause of increased US pedestrian deaths?

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6. jamesblonde ◴[02 Aug 25 23:50 UTC] No.44772767{3}[source]▶
"Large cars are not the primary driver of increased pedestrian deaths in the USA"

Evidence free claim. Sometimes correlation indicates causation.

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7. sosborn ◴[03 Aug 25 02:41 UTC] No.44773639{4}[source]▶
My money would go on mobile phone usage.
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8. wyre ◴[03 Aug 25 04:01 UTC] No.44773994{3}[source]▶
Incorrect. Light trucks account for 54% of pedestrian fatalities compared to passenger cars at 37%. Impossible for more than half to not be considered the primary cause.

https://www.ghsa.org/resource-hub/pedestrian-traffic-fatalit...

9. ◴[03 Aug 25 13:21 UTC] No.44776409{4}[source]▶
10. jeromegv ◴[03 Aug 25 13:42 UTC] No.44776539{5}[source]▶
Every countries in the world got cellphones. Many saw a drop in fatalies on the road, others it went up (US). Cellphones surely don’t help and are awful but once you hit someone the size of the car (and speed!) matters on the outcome and cars are bigger in the US.