Zero deaths: How Helsinki became a world reference for road safety

Some 40 years, Finland´s capital started to design new solutions to reduce deadly road accidents – and then eventually eliminate them. Those efforts have now paid off. 12 consecutive months without a single road death were recorded between 2024 and 2025. By comparison, during a similar period 31 people -including drivers, pedestrians, bikers or cyclists- died on the streets of Paris. By the time of the filming of this report, another nine consecutive months had passed without a single road death in Helsinki.

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Comprehensive city planning has been a key aspect, but there have been many others too. “Of course, improving the safety of our traffic environment is important, but so is safer road user behaviour, safer vehicles, and legislation or traffic enforcement are important,” explains Roni Utriainen, a traffic engineer at the City of Helsinki´s Urban Environment Division. “The city has reduced speed limits, improved walking and cycling facilities, narrowed roadways and built speed camera sites. Public transport is very good and that also helps to reduce the number of car trips and collisions.”

For the last 20 years, the capital of Finland has massively invested in infrastructure aimed at improving road safety, including tunnels in busy downtown hubs and bridges connecting neighboring districts -exclusively built for pedestrians and cyclists. “The overall sentiment of safety has improved quite significantly during the last decade,” concedes Martti Tulenheimo, Chief Specialist at the Finnish Cyclists´ Federation. “Last year Helsinki invested about €35 million in cycling and pedestrian infrastructure, which sounds maybe a big sum, but it’s still only 13% of the whole traffic investment budget,” confirms Matti Hirvonen, another chief specialist, from the Network of Finnish Cycling Municipalities.

The city is now looking ahead to increase its safety record even more, with private cars to be banned from 2030 around busy streets near the Central Railway Station, explains Pasi Anteroinen, Managing Director at Liikenneturva, the Finnish Road Safety Council. “The bigger issue is public acceptance. What’s acceptable in a country or in a city? What are our expectations? The people of Helsinki have decided that they want safer streets.”

Already some 20 years ago, the city adopted 30 kphs as the maximum speed on its streets. Here there is a lasting, widespread culture of zero tolerance towards speeding or driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol. “The city has increased automatic surveillance. We have 70 automatic speed cameras. On top of that, we have traffic controls, where speed limits and alcohol levels come under scrutiny. Of course, all modes of transport are controlled,” explains Dennis Pasterstein, Head of Traffic Control Operations at Helsinki Police Department. “Another important action is communication campaigns. We are communicating diligently on social media. Last year, for example, there were 30 million views from our social media accounts alone. These campaigns multiple by hundreds or thousands of times the visibility of a simple traffic fine. The impact on peoples´ driving behavior is huge.”

The European Union´s“Vision Zero” strategy aims to move as close as possible to zero fatalities in roadtransport by 2050. The fundamental idea is that road deaths and serious injuries are preventable. What can other EU capitals and big cities learn from the successful Helsinki experience?

“The goal was set here 40 years ago. Now it’s a reality. It’s important to set your goals and look into the future,” says Martti Tulenheimo. “If I would mention just one thing, that would be reduce speed limits. It is important. That´s where you can start,” explains traffic engineer Roni Utriainen. “Of course, every city is different. Some European capitals are 10 times larger than Helsinki, but they can still strive to be better every single day,” concludes Finnish Road Safety Council Managing Director Pasi Anteroinen.