Nordicum - Real Estate Annual Finland 2014 | Page 62

Time to Move
From pedestrian zones to intermodality,
face of transportation keeps changing

Photo: VR Group

City centres around the world are struggling with congestion issues – but the rising
green consciousness is providing urban planners with tools to combat the problem.
Bicycle-minded pioneers such as Denmark and Holland have shown that bikes are
extremely cool, green and hip and many cities are following their lead.

P

rofessor Jorma Mäntynen from Tampere University of Technology says
that urbanisation is a strong global
megatrend which forces all communities to
consider their traffic mix.
“Cities find it useful to allow for both
pedestrian and bicycle activity, since when
you remove cars from downtown, the setting becomes more enjoyable – which contributes to people spending more time and
money there,” Mäntynen says, adding that
cities have a clear motive to turn downtown
areas into “pedestrian paradises”.

Small Cities, Big Ideas
In Finland, there are a number of cities that
have been rather active on this front. Helsinki, for one, has had success with the “Low
Line” bicycle route Baana, which connects
downtown with west Helsinki. But there are
other success stories out there, too.
60 Nordicum

“Kokkola, for example, has realised a
pedestrian zone along the lines of the Central European model and Oulu has a great
pedestrian area and the best biking in Finland,” Mäntynen says.
“Also Jyväskylä has shaped its centre
from the pedestrian perspective and the City
has very ambitious plans for development.”
Discussing other strong trends in logistics, Mäntynen believes that intermodality
will only be strengthening during the coming years. The concept relies on combining
various forms of transportation to create a
smooth traffic solution.
“The challenge lies in making sure
that the transport chain works seamlessly,” he says, pointing out that, for example,
various “Airport City” concepts draw their
strength from optimised intermodality. Air
cargo will continue to grow; according to
some estimates, the global total air cargo
volume will triple by 2030. In Finland, the

volumes have grown about 50% during the
last ten years.
Still, there are no real estimates as to
the growth of air cargo in Finland in the
future. Nevertheless, even though Climate
Change poses a challenge to all air traffic,
Finland occupies a “gateway” location and
is quite well positioned.

Rock the Rail
According to Mäntynen, there is plenty of
untapped potential left also in the rail traffic – both passenger and cargo. In Finland,
the success of Allegro fast connection between Helsinki and St. Petersburg has created at least a partial “rail renaissance”. Allegro has already had one million passengers
since its launch in December 2010.
In September, the future of rail traffic
was very much on the agenda at the RailForum 2013 seminar in Kouvola, a key rail-