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Helsinki records zero traffic deaths for full year

(www.helsinkitimes.fi)
1163 points DaveZale | 6 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. panick21_ ◴[03 Aug 25 01:09 UTC] No.44773250[source]▶
> not about urban planning genius or Scandinavian magic

Fewer cars IS THE MAGIC and fewer cars IS GREAT URBAN planning.

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2. sitkack ◴[03 Aug 25 02:46 UTC] No.44773661[source]▶
Cars are obviously the problem. All cars, small cars, large cars, gas cars, electric cars, all cars are the problem.
3. yard2010 ◴[03 Aug 25 07:45 UTC] No.44774889[source]▶
Yes. In the future there will be no cars and no deaths related to them. We just live in the 1800' of our time.
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4. arrrg ◴[03 Aug 25 09:51 UTC] No.44775416[source]▶
This is a nonsensical generalization.

This is the observation: we massively overshoot in terms of the role (space, infrastructure) we assign to cars, especially in densely populated areas.

If we can create viable alternatives to driving we can make these places much, much more enjoyable. Quieter, nicer to be around, more human scale, more convenient.

That’s all. Nowhere in there is any claim that cars aren’t immensely useful. In less densely populated people. For people with disabilities. Etc.

Why can’t we have the nice things? And yeah, the nice things do include walkable cities like we had them in 19th century. Sometimes and in some places to a very limited extent the past with some modern conveniences (like trams, modern bicycles) was better.

5. Mawr ◴[03 Aug 25 12:41 UTC] No.44776159[source]▶
I don't think bicycles, trams, buses and trains existed back then in the way they do now.
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6. goopypoop ◴[04 Aug 25 01:06 UTC] No.44781226{3}[source]▶
I bet horse-related deaths have dropped