City|The vitality of the center
Parking statistics show that car use in the center of Helsinki is recovering after the pandemic.
Cars the number in the core of Helsinki may be in a fine growth trend again.
This is evident from the recent parking statistics of the city of Helsinki. One-time parking in the core center has increased by 20 percent compared to before the corona pandemic.
The statistic is not perfect, but it gives a direction. Only the city’s own paid parking areas are included in the city’s statistics. In addition to them, there are several private parking facilities in the center.
The ease or difficulty of driving and parking has been widely discussed over the past year, when Helsinki has raised the price of parking and started an experiment limiting driving traffic on the Esplanade. The purpose of the experiment is to increase the vitality of the core city.
The people of Helsinki have been worried about the decrease in businesses and people in the city center. One reason for the phenomenon has been suspected in the public debate is that driving in the center is difficult.
Parking inspection applies only to recent years. Motor vehicle traffic in Helsinki’s core is generally slightly decreasing when the statistics of several decades are taken into consideration.
Department manager of the urban environment of the city of Helsinki Ville Lehmuskoski thinks that there are several reasons behind the revival of motoring predicted by the parking statistics. However, he cannot say what these factors are.
“Recently, the general perception has been that you can’t get to the city center by car, but the numbers show that this is not the case,” says Lehmuskoski.
“This shows that saving the city center is not a hopeless task.”
One the biggest recent changes to downtown traffic have been the narrowing of the Esplanade lanes. The areas intended for walking and sitting have been expanded.
Lehmuskoski hopes that the new Esplanadis opening next week will attract more pedestrians and buzz to the center. However, most people get off the means of transport to walk, so we wanted to pay attention to this in the reforms.
“In the endgame, everyone in the center is a pedestrian, whether they come there by car, public transport or even by bicycle,” says Lehmuskoski.
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