Transport

Approximately 21 per cent of the City of Helsinki’s CO₂emissions come from transport. Of this, 56 per cent comes from passenger cars, 20 per cent from heavy traffic, 16 per cent from waterborne traffic and 6 per cent from bus traffic.

In accordance with Helsinki’s climate strategy, transport emissions must also be cut drastically. This requires

• developing pedestrian and bicycle routes
• improving access to public transport, and
• targeting/streamlining/rationalising and electrifying passenger cars.

There are specific guidelines for transport planning, based on the objectives of the transport system. The general planning principle is to take into account the needs of pedestrians first, as they are the least powerful group of road users. After that, the needs of cycling, public transport, business transport and private cars will be taken into account, in this order.

In order to achieve the emission reduction targets, a wide range of effective measures will be required for both the propulsion of vehicles and the reduction of driving. Effective measures that are under the city’s control and that have a sufficiently rapid impact have been identified and the CO₂ emissions impacts of the measures have been assessed. The next step is to assess the other impacts of the measures extensively and interactively. Impact assessments are carried out on a wide range of social, economic and transport system impacts. The city will carry out an impact assessment and enhance interaction with residents and companies in the spring of 2024. The conclusions of the impact assessment will be submitted to the Urban Environment Committee in late spring 2024.