Project Activities > The Second Study Visit of Russian Experts, Oulu (Finland), February 27 – March 2, 2017 > Study Visit of Russian Experts to Oulu (Finland), Daria Tabachnikova’s Review

{Study Visit of Russian Experts to Oulu (Finland), Daria Tabachnikova’s Review}

Author: Daria Tabachnikova, Cycling Advisor of the Vice-Governor of St. Petersburg.

Daria Tabachnikova, Cycling Advisor of the Vice-Governor of St. Petersburg, Stas Ivanov and Polina Kibireva from St. Petersburg City Center for Parking Management, and Anastasia Nerovnaya, Leader of VELOVE Cycling Movement from Petrozavodsk had a study visit to Oulu (Finland) to get knowledge about organization of the cycling infrastructure in the Winter Cycling Capital of the World.

Summary:
— Even in northern cities with a harsh winter, you can develop the cycling infrastructure. Oulu has 845 km of bike paths for 200 thousand people (about 4.3 m per inhabitant). St. Petersburg has about 40 km of bike paths for 5 million people, but the city is planning to build them actively in 2017

— If the cycling infrastructure is well planned, built and maintained in time, people will be happy to ride a bicycle. In Oulu, the average urban cycling mode share is 22%, and in winter is 12% [Here you can find urban cycling mode share data for 700 cities in 40 countries: http://www.cityclock.org/urban-cycling-mode-share].

— The main feeling from the three day study visit – is comfort and safety. In this context, commuting by bike 10 km was a great pleasure, rather than torture.

— Oulu has low population density (in fact it is a city + several villages around + lakes and forests, similar to Kurortny district of St. Petersburg), so the Finns can afford to build shared use bike paths. But the city centers with the densest population are trying to separate pedestrians and cyclists because of intense traffic flows. Each city has its own criteria for sharing/separating the traffic flows, and here you can see the approximate figures: https://goo.gl/JaVg7e.

— Planning and building of the cycling infrastructure has begun in 1960s due to one officer of transportation unit, who, despite the overall opposition, relied on developing not only the motor transport, but for the first time included bike and pedestrian infrastructure in the city’s master plan. Oulu has been proven the success of such a model for many years and now it is the recognized center for winter cycling. However, creating new pedestrian or bike streets each time causes heated debate.

— As for the road and bike and pedestrian infrastructure maintenance, the whole city is divided into 13 areas, and one maintenance company is responsible for one area. Dates, quality criteria, bonuses and fines are clearly defined in the contract. As a result, Oulu, located almost at the Arctic Circle, has no unexpected problems due to snowfalls, rains, icy conditions, etc. Everything is solved by timely and high-quality cleaning.

— During cleaning the snow is not removed up to asphalt. The main goal is to provide a solid and non-slip coating for pedestrians and cyclists. Thus all road machinery has special bucket notched nozzles, which ram recent snow, making it dense with a small relief in the form of corduroy. All three days we were riding the ordinary city bikes, and it was not slippery at all.

— All roads and bike paths are cleaned with machinery, because it is fast and efficient. No manual labor. Accordingly, this is taken into account while building – all road machinery must pass through bike path/sidewalk. Besides, while building bike paths it is better to make them wider in order to reserve place for a cleaned snow. Absolutely all bike paths have lighting.

— Cycling in Oulu involves all possible types of cyclists: children (often - independently), students, pensioners, office employees and sportsmen. Because it is fast, convenient and cheap.

— In addition to building the cycling infrastructure, the city also invests in promotion, encouraging people to ride a bicycle. For example, they hold campaigns for people to continue cycling in winter, as well as the European Mobility Week, Bike to Work Day and others.

— To sum up: everything is possible. We need to plan, convince and build.

More figures and facts - in presentation: https://goo.gl/ZxF3TZ

Thanks to ICSER Leontief CentreGreen Mobility Project and Navico Company for organization of study visit.

 

Source: Velosipedization of St. Petersburg https://velosipedization.ru/2017/03/визит-в-оулу-столицу-зимнего-велодв/