New year, familiar poor winter maintenance

Kirkkonummi’s winter maintenance is inadequate for pedestrians and cyclists — and the same problem recurs year after year. Now that we are well into winter, you can once again notice how different a municipality Kirkkonummi is in winter compared to the other three seasons. Getting around here in winter is many times harder — if not outright impossible.

What has the situation been like this winter?

This winter, maintenance worked reasonably at first, until the first thaws arrived just before Christmas. At that point we got to enjoy a thick layer of slush, which was then allowed to freeze into a surface more uneven than Helsinki’s cobblestone streets. There were even whole days when roads had not been ploughed even in areas close to the centre.

For pedestrians, that was only the opening act. Since then we have seen so many days with light traffic routes awaiting ploughing; gritting that melts through the ice in an instant; extra snowdrifts ploughed off the road onto pavements; snow walls waiting at junctions; paths ploughed impossibly narrow; and roads that look more like potato fields than routes meant for travel. Try pushing a child in a pram for their afternoon nap when they are more likely to get a concussion from the walk than sufficient rest.

How could things be different?

Things could be different. In Oulu, for example, where people live more spread out than here , light traffic is given much higher priority, and it shows in how locals get around. And even if the goal were not to increase everyday physical activity, the minimum standard should be that in the most densely populated areas everyone can get around without a car.

What if next winter we tried out what it feels like when winter maintenance receives sufficient investment?

I have written more about transport and infrastructure: about cycling and light traffic infrastructure and about the public transport cost crisis . Read more in my posts on transport .

Published in Kirkkonummen Sanomat on 10 January 2024.