Motoring | Helsinki wants to lower the speed limit on Lahdenväylä

Helsinki continue attempts to lower the speed limit on Lahdenväylä between Ring I and Koskela. The current speed limit on this section is 80-100 kilometers per hour.

The matter will be negotiated with the state this year.

Helsinki has been aiming to lower the speed limits on many entrance roads in recent years, so that apartments and more urban residential areas can be built along the roads.

Lahtenväylän however, there would not be an actual urban boulevard in the area, because Lahdenväylä has been determined by the state to be a central part of the national transport network.

Converting an avenue into a street is therefore not possible, says the branch manager of the urban environment branch Ville Lehmuskoski.

The Lahtenväylä must therefore remain a highway, and its speed limit cannot be reduced to, for example, 50 kilometers per hour, as is often done with street sections that are to be boulevardized.

The number of lanes is not decreasing either.

The goal however, it is necessary to get more “downtown-like areas” around Lahdenväylä in Viikki and also further north in the Malmi area, says Lehmuskoski.

In practice, this inner-city feel would mean more residential buildings with services in their stone foundations.

In the inner city, apartment prices are the highest and prices have also risen there the most, from which you can conclude that it is a desirable living environment, says Lehmuskoski.

“So that the prices of apartments don't run away any more, we need to get more of the living environment that the city dwellers want in Helsinki. All options for this type of construction must be carefully reviewed.”

For Viikki and Malmi area is scheduled also a new light rail, which would be a giant project.

Lahtenväylän the current driving speeds are especially annoying because of the noise. If the amount of traffic noise remains as it is now, new apartments cannot be built to the same extent.

The amount of noise drops significantly even if the maximum speed is reduced from one hundred kilometers per hour to seventy kilometers per hour, Lehmuskoski explains.

However, Helsinki does not aim for a single reading at which the speed limit should fall.

According to Lehmuskoski, noise at highway speeds is mainly caused by air resistance and tire noise from driving.

“So it's not enough, even if the cars are, for example, electric cars. Motorway noise is not so much related to what kind of cars drive on it, but to their speed.”

Lehmuskoski according to the report, lowering the speed limit would not actually increase congestion, even though one might think otherwise.

The ability to pass traffic even increases when the speed limit is lowered, because the traffic flows more smoothly and there are fewer disturbances.

“The travel time does increase, but it's only a matter of a few minutes at most. So there's no need to worry about overcrowding,” says Lehmuskoski.

He hopes that the city might succeed in negotiating a lower speed limit with the state already this year.

According to the Finnish Transport Agency, Lahdenväylä is the section from Ring Road I towards Helsinki, whose speed limit is aimed at 60–80 kilometers per hour in 2030.

Helsinki has tried to change the city's general plan in the past so that the speed limits of the highways would be lowered in order to get urban boulevards along the roads.

In 2018 first administrative Court and later the Supreme Administrative Court (KHO) canceled the plan.

At that time, in addition to Lahdenväylä, the boulevard plans for Länsiväylä, Turunväylä and Hämeenlinnanväylä were also shelved.

The Supreme Administrative Court justified its decision by the fact that sufficient grounds were not shown for converting motorways into urban boulevards.

In addition, it was uncertain how the boulevardization of the avenues would affect the functionality of the roads in the event that the measures intended to alleviate vehicle congestion, such as strong public transport and congestion charges, were not implemented.

The boulevards would reduce the car traffic capacity of Helsinki's entrance roads, which would increase the load on the transport network and increase travel times from the region to the inner city by car by 5-20 percent in the morning peak hours, the decision stated.

On other thoroughfares, such as Vihdintie, Itäväylä and Tuusulanväylä, instead, the boulevard plans have progressed, although there are also contradictions.