Käpylä elementary school children walk to school across the busy Mäkelänkatu. The behavior of motorists and the safety of children worry the decision-maker from Helsinki.
Out of four at two light cycles, the cars drove toward the red lights. This is what the green city councilor observed Otso Kivekäswhich followed traffic on Mäkelänkatu on a regular weekday evening in December.
Kivekäs published an update on the topic in Käpylä's local Facebook group at the end of December.
The newly established traffic group of the Käpyläinen parents' association had previously invited Kivekkä to discuss traffic behavior on Mäkelänkatu, because parents are concerned about children's safe way to school.
Several elementary school children who live on the other side of Mäkelänkatu in Käpylä have to cross the busy road to the shelters located at Mäkelänkatu 84. One of these school children is also a second grader in the Kivekkä family.
“The children also say that motorists drive at red lights there every day.”
To the stone according to this, a culture has developed for motorists where they can still drive the red ones that have just been changed.
“Motorists don't want to run over children on purpose, it's just thoughtlessness inside a tin shell”, says Kivekäs.
The city has already taken measures to improve children's safety in the area: In the summer, the speed limit in the area was reduced from fifty to forty, on the initiative of Kivekkä.
In addition to that, the light cycle of the traffic lights has already been fine-tuned, and according to Kivekkä, the city's traffic light team will review the situation in the area from the beginning of the year.
“In that clip, the three lights are relatively close to each other. It might attract motorists to try the next lights, even if the first one has already changed to red”, Kivekäs thinks.
Otherwise the city has limited opportunities to influence traffic. More traffic control would be needed, and in cooperation with the police, the city could also consider camera surveillance in the area.
According to Kivekkä, the local parents' association has actively tried to find solutions to the situation.
“Of course, the most important thing would be for motorists to follow the traffic rules. It has also been discussed that the look of the street would be changed away from a motorway-like one,” says Kivekäs.
In addition to Mäkelänkatu, parents of Käpylä school children have enough to worry about in Koskelantie, which also falls on the route of many children. Last summer, one person died in an overrun on Koskelantie.
Also in the Urban Environment Board the impressive Kivekäs states that the situation on Mäkelänkatu was not the only one of its kind in Helsinki.
“Wherever there are schools along major streets, there are places of risk.”
According to Kivekä, parents from Käpylä are discussing the situation with the police, but for now, parents and afternoon club employees are also participating in escorting children across Mäkelänkatu.
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