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Helsinki records zero traffic deaths for full year

(www.helsinkitimes.fi)
1163 points DaveZale | 1 comments | 30 Jul 25 16:08 UTC | HN request time: 0.201s | source
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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. stetrain ◴[03 Aug 25 01:04 UTC] No.44773223[source]▶
> Maybe Helsinki isn’t special: just fewer cars

That is special for a modern western city, and is likely the result of intentional policy and urban planning.

Many cities base most of their development around fitting in more cars, not reducing them. And that comes with lots of negative statistics related to car density.

You’re right that it’s not magic. Other cities could likely achieve similar results with similar policies. They are just very resistant to that change.