{Study Visit of Russian Experts to Oulu (Finland). Stanislav Ivanov’s Review}

The modal rate of cycling and walking has been gradually declining until the early 2000s. Due to the small size, low population density and large territory, as well as for historical reasons, a public transport is relatively poor developed in Oulu. The only type of public transport is bus that provides 6% of all city trips. The situation with public transport has just begun to change 2-3 years ago.

Such dynamics of the modal rate of cycling is not surprising, if you look at the photos of Oulu in the mid-20th century:

How did it happen to have such an abnormally good cycling infrastructure in a small northern city? The main merit is attributed to a man, who since 1961 has worked as a traffic planner in the Oulu City Hall and managed to convince his colleagues that it is necessary to develop bike and walking routes - Mauri Myllylä.

Mauri Myllylä. Photo: ©JUHA METSO Helsingin Sanomat

Less than a month ago Mauri Myllylä has published a book in English, where he tries to collect his experience and tells how to influence on the city to become more convenient for walking and cycling. In Oulu his colleagues told us that in 1960s and 1970s he had to resort to various tricks in order to convince politicians of the need to invest in development of cycling and walking infrastructure. For example, Mauri Myllylä said that the bikeways were needed as an insurance transport system in case of oil delivery interruptions or it was easy to convert bike and pedestrian underpasses into the bomb shelters in case of war.

In 1969 for the first time the walking and cycling infrastructure plans were included in a transport system plan of Oulu. In 1971 according to city development plan of bicycle and pedestrian traffic an extensive network of bike paths, separated from car traffic, was covering the whole city but the city center missed from the plan.

Right – City development plan of bicycle and pedestrian traffic 1971. Presentation by Pekka Tahkola

Mauri says in an interview: "In fact, it is not only planning, but also struggle. The Rotuaari pedestrian zone is an example of a 30-year battle in transport planning".

In 1987 the first part of pedestrian zone was opened in the city center. Being a successful experience, the pedestrian zone has been gradually expanded.

Oulu city center in 1977 and 2016. Despite the growth of motorization over 2.5 times since 1977, now there is more space for pedestrians and bicycles in the city. Presentation by Pekka Tahkola

At the moment in the city center there are both mixed-use zones without car traffic (photo above), and zones with separated bike and pedestrian sidewalks or mixed-use zones for cyclists and motorists. Successive steps were taken to unload the city center from cars (traffic calming, paid parking and reducing the number of parking places). The next goal of the Oulu City Hall is to create more understandable and coherent infrastructure in the city center and to separate bike and pedestrian traffic both in the city center and outskirts at the bike routes with intensive pedestrian traffic, primarily, at the intersections.

Most of the underpasses for cyclists were built in 1960-1970s and, as Adviser on Cycling Infrastructure of Oulu Pekka Tahkola notes, now many of them are unnecessary and if the crossings were designed today, the majority of them would be located at one level. However, there are new underpasses in places, where the bike route location is otherwise impossible or dangerous, for example, while crossing railway tracks.

In some cases they have to close the transit car traffic on the whole street for a construction of the bike route. For example, on the photo below, a small street was given to cyclists, and a parallel one was left to motorists. Now there is a bike highway from the university to the city center.

Such a solution can be applied to any other city, regardless of size. In parallel with routes, where it is currently difficult to provide high comfort for both cyclists and pedestrians, it is possible to create a route with the priority for pedestrians and bicycles, imposing restrictions on the through car traffic and speed limits. For example, if St. Petersburg is not ready to remove one lane on the Nevsky Prospect for expansion of sidewalks and construction of bike lanes, the organization of such “bypass” routes – less direct but more comfortable, seems possible:

Author's draft concept, required an expert discussion

The same solution can be appropriate in a number of other places.

Now in Oulu the master plan of bike and pedestrian routes is integrated into the general transport planning system. This is how a small section of a new district looks like in the master plan:

Using Google Streetview https://goo.gl/maps/ECKfA13Lvq62 you can see how it looks in real life. It is one of the new districts of Oulu, where part of the streets, being in the plan, hasn’t rebuilt yet.

Orange motorways – are bike paths remote from the roadway, where is prohibited through car traffic, but usually allowed access to the house for residents or a passage for unloading. A red stripe – is a motorway without dedicated bike lanes or bike paths. A red stripe with half-transparent lines along the edges – is a motorway with two-way bike path or a separated bike lane.

Winter Maintenance

Oulu is one of the few cities that have already built almost all necessary bike routes. Therefore, now, given the climate conditions, winter maintenance of the bicycle infrastructure is coming to the forefront. This is the main resource for increasing the modal bicycle share. Now one third of cyclists continue to ride in winter, but this figure can be much higher.

All bike and pedestrian routes on the periphery are wide enough to be serviced by road machinery:

Note that lower edge of the bucket is notched to leave the small traces in the snow for better grip. In freezing temperatures it is better to leave the layer of snow 3 cm high rather than clean it up to asphalt, and operator can flexibly regulate pressing of the bucket to snow. In general, Oulu uses universal machinery – bucket on the photo is removable, so it is easy to convert a tractor for other purposes. Pay attention to protectors. Using non-embossed protectors is one of the requirements, because deep traces from standard tractors are dangerous for cyclists – it can cause the wheel to get stuck. 

On the photo – traces of the tractor's protector, trace from the notched bucket edge, trace from the bucket support and several bicycles. The author’s photo.

The climate in Oulu is changing. Over the past 30 years, average temperature has risen by 5 degrees. Therefore, there are often "temperature swing" situations, when it crosses zero mark several times a day. In the first day of study visit temperature was -10, but in the last day it has become +2. When it happens, the snow cleans up to asphalt:

The same machinery is responsible for cleaning the bus stops – it can ride up to the bus stop from the bike path:

Previously all companies, involved in snow cleaning, belonged to the city. Now several private companies are engaged in winter maintenance and cleaning of territories. Every couple of years, municipality of Oulu holds a tender for 14 city sites between contractors. The City Hall has an unspoken rule – one contractor can’t get more than 2-3 sites to maintain competition. Each contractor has specialists, who are on duty around the clock. According to weather conditions and detailed work rules, prescribed in contract, they make a work plan for the day, or even half a day ahead. The duties of 3 employees of the City Hall include cleaning quality checks. A compliant on cleaning can be also sent by citizens. Every year there are single cases of bicycle injuries – the City Hall pays compensation, but finally such costs are shifted to contractors.

In our group of 10, riding about 50 km for 3 days in Oulu, we have only one small fall because of the slippery snow on a smooth descent. Despite the fact that winter maintenance system is working quite well, Adviser on Cycling Infrastructure of Oulu Pekka Tahkola believes there is something to strive for. This year they are planning to test new system of contracts for winter cleaning: all highway routes will be handed over to one contractor to keep united quality; part of contractors’ compensation is tied to user satisfaction, estimated by reports of volunteers - "secret agents", selected through social networks.

Speed Limits

At the same time, permitted movement speed has been gradually decreasing in most of the streets from 50 km/h in 1973 to 30 km/h by the early 2000s. 

Employee of the Oulu City Hall shows a map with history of changes in speed limits in the Oulu region.

Speed limit – is one of the key measures to improve comfort and safety of cyclists and pedestrians. At a speed of 30 km/h cyclists and motorists can ride in one traffic flow – this way traffic is organized in most of the city center. Using the experience of Helsinki, Oulu has tightened speed limits, and after decreasing speed up to 30 km/h in a large city area the number of accidents between cyclists and pedestrians has decreased by 90%.

Parking

City of Oulu has the paid parking, working for many years, and the number of parking places is gradually decreasing in order to equip the bike paths and expand the pedestrian zone. In most part of city areas parking is not only paid, but also limited in time – no more than 2 hours.

The investor has opened an underground parking for 920 places under several streets of the city center only in 2015. It helped to pass the streets to pedestrians and cyclists, and also to remove cargo transport from pedestrian streets, bringing goods to stores – one level underground allocated for these purposes. 

The author’s photo

As for bike parking, we often met with inconvenient solutions, where it was difficult to lock bike for the frame:

Bike parking by school

The most correct bike parking located at office of the transportation unit.

Thanks to ICSER Leontief Centre, Green Mobility Project, Navico Company for organization of study visit and personally Pekka Tahkola for being our guide and lecturer in Oulu. The case of Oulu is a good opportunity to show, that development of the bicycle infrastructure has a point, despite the climate conditions.

Link to the latest version: goo.gl/CqI68v

Prepared by: Stanislav Ivanov: stasivanov@outlook.com, vk.com/stas.ivanov, fb.com/stas.ivanoff.

Source: https://medium.com/@stanislavivanov/столица-зимнего-велотранспорта-715714295382#.99od2z2t0