Helsinki

Car-Free Cities

Watch: The Car-Free City Becomes Reality

The latest City Beautiful video shows off the fruits of car-free initiatives in European cities.

December 25, 2020 - City Beautiful

Finland Rail

There's Still a Catch to Plans for the World's Largest Undersea Rail Tunnel

The country of Estonia is seeking more details on a plan to build the world's longest undersea rail tunnel between Helsinki and Tallinn.

August 19, 2019 - Bloomberg

Pipeline Politics Ruffle NATO Summit

At the NATO Summit in Brussels last Wednesday, President Trump charged that Germany was captive to Russia because of its dependence on Russian natural gas, and a new, controversial pipeline from Russia to Germany will exacerbate its dependency.

July 15, 2018 - The Washington Post

Self-Driving Bus

In Europe, Self-Drivers Focus on Augmenting Transit

Unlike the American focus on luxury personal self-drivers, the European approach favors small self-driving buses that can ferry riders to larger transit lines.

May 31, 2017 - The New York Times

Lessons From Helsinki's Failed On-Demand Bus Experiment

Kutsuplus—an attempt to "reinvent carpooling for the algorithm age"—has failed in Helsinki. What can new systems, still operating in the United States, learn from its example?

March 12, 2016 - Citiscope

Car-Free Movement Gaining Steam in Europe and Elsewhere

Athlyn Cathcart-Keays of The Guardian-Cities chronicles the advancement of the international urban car-free movement as well as auto regulations that focus on air pollution. The most recent city to join the growing list is Oslo, Norway

December 12, 2015 - The Guardian Cities

Tokyo Skyline

A Highly Subjective Ranking of World Cities

Toronto, Tokyo, and Helsinki may have little in common, but they all top Metropolis Magazine's list of the world's most liveable cities, as named by an expert panel of designers and urbanists. Eight runnners-up were named in a variety of categories.

August 3, 2015 - Metropolis Magazine

Post-Car? Helsinki's Plans for a Tech-Enabled Mobility Network

Helsinki, capital of Finland's, is working to create a "mobility on demand" system that integrates shared and public transit in a single payment network. The idea is that with such a system in place, residents would no longer need cars.

July 16, 2014 - Guardian Cities

Underground City Gets Master Plan

The city of Helsinki has developed a master plan for its burgeoning underground city.

February 24, 2011 - The Huffington Post

Finland Special: Snow As Traffic Calming Device

Very snowy holiday greetings from Finland, everyone!  While here visiting my in-laws and friends, I wanted to take a quick moment and share an interesting observation about the way Finns handle the incessant layers of snow that blanket their chilly winter country.  It seems that aside from limited access highways and some primary arterials, the Finnish standard for snow treatment is to plow to a reasonable depth, but not worry too much about an inch or two of snow base layer covering streets.  Some streets get sand treatment as well, but salt is used very, very sparingly.

December 31, 2009 - Ian Sacs

Finland's First Skyscrapers

An Italian firm plans to build the first skyscrapers in a central district in Helsinki, intended to house both homes and offices.

November 19, 2009 - Helsingin Sanomat

Will Developing Nations Drive/Follow in our Faulted Footsteps?

The growth in hybrid car sales is a welcome sign that a major change in the automobile industry is afoot.  The shift to transport infrastructure that is not based on the archaic complexity of an internal combustion engine, with its hundreds of moving parts and compressed fuel explosions, has been long put off by an automobile industry, happy with status quo, partnered with oil cartels with the power to price their product as if it were in endless supply.  But with smack-in-the-face-reality fuel prices last summer, the collapse of the so-called “Big Three” over the winter, and the simultaneous heralding assertion of alternative energy technologies (Daimler AG bought a 10% stake in Tesla Motors last month!), the fallout of western economic near-collapse has changed everything we’ve known to be sacrosanct; Leonard Lopate even waxed nostalgic about the “Death of the Car Song” yesterday on National Public Radio’s local station, WNYC.

June 9, 2009 - Ian Sacs

Pedestrian Sprawl Alert: Streets Gone Wild

Once upon a time public rights-of-way were simpler; they made sense.  The mobile laws of society were black and white.  Streets were for cars and sidewalks were for, well, walking on the side of the street.  You know, out of the way?  At some point recently though things have started to blur, and it's starting to get just a little bit out of control.  It's hard to put one's finger on it, but lately there's been this funny notion that the street itself, long the gift to man-and-machine, is supposed to be shared with people who just can't seem to keep themselves on their side of the curb.  Woe is me, in some instances there isn't even a curb anymore!  What's worse, it seems apparent that our public officials, the very people we elect to represent us an

April 13, 2009 - Ian Sacs

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Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools

This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.

Planning for Universal Design

Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.