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Helsinki records zero traffic deaths for full year

(www.helsinkitimes.fi)
1163 points DaveZale | 2 comments | 30 Jul 25 16:08 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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SilverElfin ◴[30 Jul 25 16:55 UTC] No.44736599[source]▶
> More than half of Helsinki’s streets now have speed limits of 30 km/h. Fifty years ago, the majority were limited to 50 km/h.

So they hurt quality of life by making it more painful to get anywhere, taking time away from everyone’s lives. You can achieve no traffic deaths by slowing everyone to a crawl. That doesn’t make it useful or good. The goal should be fast travel times and easy driving while also still reducing injuries, which newer safety technologies in cars will achieve.

> Cooperation between city officials and police has increased, with more automated speed enforcement

Mass surveillance under the ever present and weak excuse of “safety”.

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voxl ◴[30 Jul 25 20:02 UTC] No.44738874[source]▶
Your argument is really "I'd rather people die then drive through your city slower."????
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dataflow ◴[02 Aug 25 19:58 UTC] No.44770868[source]▶
You could ban cars entirely. Why wouldn't you? Would you rather people die than drive cars at all?

I'm not agreeing or disagreeing with the parent here; I'm just saying your rebuttal is a strawman.

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1. SoftTalker ◴[02 Aug 25 21:27 UTC] No.44771696[source]▶
Well Helsinki achieved their goal (zero fatalities) without banning cars, so that argument doesn't really work. And I count myself among those who would not have believed it possible.

Of course in general you can avoid potential bad consequences of a thing by not doing the thing but that's just a tautology.

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2. dataflow ◴[02 Aug 25 22:24 UTC] No.44772161[source]▶
To be clear, what Helsinki achieved is awesome, and I'm not suggesting the outcome was obvious. But that is completely beside the point being discussed here. I was making a rebuttal to a very specific comment and that was it. If the point was not obvious with an outright ban as an example, pretend it said reduce to 10 km/h or something.