- cross-posted to:
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- cross-posted to:
- [email protected]
The nearly 1,200-metre bridge is said to be the longest bridge in the world that will exclusively serve pedestrians, cyclists and trams.
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“Who paid for it!” “Who profits off of it?” Typical american reactions to anything good. Congrat’s Finland ( a country where I’d quite like to be)!
Bridges are usually slow traffic. Thus you can get all your money back quicker if a shit ton of people walk thru in mass. It will be $$$$, length of human $$$$ vs. $$$$ length of car $$$$. You could even charge less and make more money.
Sounds similar to Starý most in Bratislava, which AFAIK used to be a bridge mainly for cars, but in the 2010s was rebuilt as a tram/pedestrian/cycling bridge. Cars have plenty of other bridges across the Danube there anyway.
The carbrains are mad indeed. They are super annoyed that “we built a bridge for one billion euros and then blocked cars from it for no reason!”
Of course the bridge cost a bit over 300 millions. But, there was a larger project where they included everything they needed to build in the vicinity of the bridge project, so that they wouldn’t need to dig the ground open, fill it, dig it open again, etc. And everything included, the project did indeed cost a bit over one billion. That number includes the four-lane Hakaniemi bridge, built mainly for cars and without any public transportation routes. And it includes the groundwork for many new houses. And some 10 km of new tram line. And a tram depot. And a block of flats that will be built right overneath the tram depot. Of course, when the flats will be sold, much of the costs of that house will be paid back to the city. And then there are two further tram bridges.
There is no space for more cars in the street network on the cape where the city centre of Helsinki is located, so they would have needed to spend at least 500 million extra to accommodate for the cars that would come from that bridge. Plus, the bridge itself would have had to be built three times as wide as it was built now, which would have cost some hundreds of millions as well. For anybody not going for the centre, there is anyway a better route through another bridge on the northern end of the Laajasalo island. So, not spending some 700 million extra, bringing the total cost of the project from a bit over one billion to a bit under 2 billion, meant that money was wasted.
I’ve been wondering, why do they not complain that no cars are allowed in the metro tunnels? Why dig tunnels and then prohibit driving cars in the perfectly good tunnels??
Sorry to not address the bulk of your comment, but overneath is a fascinating word, for someone interested in languages and the process of foreign language learning specifically. It’s entirely understandable, but not a real word as far as I can tell. I’m interested in being corrected here, for sure. Seems theres a company by that name but thats all I was able to find.
Normally in this context you’d see overtop, overhanging, covering, above, over, something like that, but overneath makes total sense too, due to underneath and beneath being words with the widespread definition of under.
I did find that ‘neath’ is a shortening of beneath which means under, and under obviously means under, so underneath is technically redundant and means “under under”. And overneath would actually mean over under, which is itself kinda fun, because of how understandable it was in context. :D
Hey, thanks for the clarification!
That word felt full of whimsy, but I attributed it to English being a second language, not whimsy :(
Nice dive though
This must make the car brains incredibly mad. I love it.
This must make the car brains incredibly mad. I love it.
I don’t really assume so. The article from reasonably neutral Yle mentions nothing about local pushback (edit: see below; they do talk about debate, and I still don’t think it’s that major), and I really doubt American carbrains are reading – let alone caring about – Yle or the Helsinki Times.
I know what community and year we’re in, but can’t we just celebrate one nice thing without warping it into an attack on an imagined adversary, à la “I’ll bet the libs are fucking pissed over this”? Nice things can just be nice things sometimes.
and I really doubt American carbrains are reading – let alone caring about – Yle or the Helsinki Times.
Unfortunately we have a plenty of domestic carbrains here in Finland too.
Oh, no, I figured that; that’s why I mentioned local first. I figured American carbrains would be the next-most-likely (albeit distantly) to care as a group, e.g. if Fox News decided that it was time to make it the newest attraction in their carbrain haunted house.
However, there was widespread debate over whether the bridge should also be open to passenger vehicle traffic. Sazonov noted that large city projects often raise a good deal of heated debate, adding that he thinks residents will come to embrace the bridge.
He puts it very politely but you can bet your ass the car brains kicked up a huge stink over this. Every tiny bit of progress towards more human centric city planning is always vehemently opposed by vested interests that weaponise the stupidity and resistance to change of “conservatives”. Any progress is hard won and yes I’ll keep calling out the idiots who resist it.
Finland doesn’t have a domestic car industry, so the push back was probably quite limited
I wish this was a thing. But NZ doesnt either and we’re one of the worst car brained countries there are.
Sorry, I must’ve forgotten that paragraph while I was replying. My understanding having read about this a couple years back is that controversy was pretty frontloaded (“originally controversial”) and that the debate did, like in most any large infrastructure project, continue for years after. That is, I think drivers care and are disappointed about this but aren’t losing their minds over it.
Even beside that, if every carbrain across Helsinki were coping and seething right now, I think my overall point stands that turning every victory for good into a focus on how pissed “the enemy” must surely be right now isn’t at all healthy or productive.
Top tip for when a carbrain is complaining about public transportation infrastructure projects: ask them why are they complaining, this would only mean less people on the roads in front of them going 5km/h below the limit.
Absolutely!
The bridge cost a bit over 300 millions, but the car brains are super angry that they “built a bridge for bicycles and that bridge cost one BILLION euros!”
It’s really crazy watching the argumentation! There’s nowhere for the cars to go in the downtown end of the bridge – the traffic there would turn into an absolute porridge.
Ah man. In my town they’re redoing some of the roads, and it’s lead to me not being able to access my vet easily anymore. I’ve neither a car nor a license, and I’m not particularly keen on getting either. I’ve always walked to the vet, from where I live it’s only about 4 kilometres. They’ve completely obliterated the pedestrian path however, so now it’s eight because I have to circle around the entire thing.
I’m glad my dog isn’t sick with something that causes him to struggle walking, preliminarily we suspect it’s a food allergy of some kind, but it’s a lot of effort to get there and I’m pissed off they decided to so royally screw over pedestrians. I hope they have better plans for us in the future.
There are direct actions that you can do to convert one of the car lanes into a pedestrian lane.
I’m not taking the chances with my dog.
Can you get a bicycle trailer for your dog? I appreciate you shouldnt have to, but im just thinking about your dog’s interests.
Aww, you’re very sweet. Thank you for harbouring such consideration.
I’ve considered this, for years really, but I’m unsure how well it’d go. He’s a bit of a handful when he’s in cars, and I’m not sure how well he’d take to being driven around in a bicycle. In the past I usually hook him up to the bicycle and he runs alongside me. He’s a husky/akita mix from a rescue in Ireland, so he’s a bit of work partially because of his breeds and partially because of his rocky past.
A day will come when he won’t be able to enjoy running as much, and I’ve thought that we could continue to enjoy our bike rides with some kind of trailer. Though I’m unsure if he’d get much joy from it, since he lives to run.
Got a text from the vet earlier today; he’s got a bacterial infection in his intestine, so we’ll be going on a big antibiotics regimen and switch up the feed a little. I’m so happy it’s something that’s treatable. Been anxious about it for a while now and it’s like a weight has been lifted.
I glossed over this the first time reading the article:
The grand opening also included a food truck, tent sauna, a samba music group, as well as a brass band.
Have the Nordic countries gone too far?
Why? This is Finland. Saunas used to be a type of shrine here before we were converted to christianity. They are seriously important in our culture.
I honestly don’t see anything weird in having a sauna in an event like this. But, I am a Finn.
Please spread your ways. We need more Saunas here.
Try searching for these three in some image search or video platform:
- Telttasauna
- Saunavaunu
- Saunalautta
“Jos ei sauna, viina ja terva auta, niin tauti on kuolemaksi.”
“If sauna, booze and tar don’t help, then the disease is lethal.”
Other cultures have their traditional remedies, we have ours.
Are tent saunas any good?
A lot I see when very quickly looking are plugged into the mains which seems to defeat the entire point of it being portable. If it was fire powered then it could actually be used anywhere. Like, at the beach in winter.
A tent sauna wastes tremendeous amounts of energy. You’ll need a disproportianely large kiuas for a small space, and you will be wasting some extra wood. But otherwise, it does work. And also, needing to heat it more actively does increase the airflow, which is a nice thing!
At least firewood is very cheap per kWh compared to gas or electricity. Idea would be for infrequent usage away from home, though somewhat decent tent saunas still seem to cost a bit.
It’s tempting but don’t know if I would use it enough to justify the price.
You should get better results with the finnish word “telttasauna”. Normally it would have a small wood stove.
> Rest of the world: We’re fucked.
> Nordic countries: TENT SAUNA ON PEDESTRIAN ONLY BRIDGEas well as a brass band.
This tickled me, because here in Sweden we moved a church last year.
The church isn’t that old, having been built in the early 1900s, but it’s very emblematic of the town it belongs to; Kiruna. Kiruna is named for the nearby mountain, Giron/Kirunavaara, where they extract iron ore by way of underground mining. It’s the world’s largest underground iron ore mine. The business is very profitable and is the sole reason the town exists.
However, when they established the mining operation, they didn’t know quite how the ore vein was positioned. Science has progressed significantly since then, and while we’re still mapping the vein, we at least know that it stretches in under the town.
The way we’re extracting the ore is by essentially collapsing previous drifts in a diamond pattern, meaning that the mine is methodically collapsing in on itself, leading to the reason why the church, and indeed the entire town is moving; the mine collapsing means that the ground around the mine is also slowly sliding into it. Buildings crack and get destroyed, so the entire town is moving eastward.
The moving of the church was a big deal last year. The entire thing was streamed live by state television, and by the end of it there was a fanfare to celebrate the building’s big move.
That’s seriously incredible. Thank you for sharing.
I think what tops it off for me is someone nearby commenting “härligt!” at the end. Meaning roughly “lovely” or “wonderful.”
Saunas aren’t even particular to Nordic countries. Baltic countries have them too, and they’re also very popular and traditional in some Slavic countries.
Finland doing it right as usual
Does it have public toilets dotted along the long journey?
It’s a 30 minute walk for able people and a tram ride that might not be 5-10 minutes. I wouldn’t call this a long journey
Many with IBS and other ailments, do call 30 minutes a long journey without a toilet. Many are not mobile to such speeds, and it would take them hours. So if there are no facilities, this bridge is ableist and exclusionary.
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The tram is still usable to all ages and abilities, no? So those who call 30 minutes a long journey still have the 5-10 minute journey option.
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The tram, walking, and rolling makes it less exclusionary than a bridge only accessible by private motor vehicles.
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The bridge may still be exclusionary, but it is ordera of magnitude less exclusionary than the previous state of affairs (only those with the physical ability to swim that far).
Don’t worry. Some ppl with ibs can drive/swim. They just need to be allowed to poop while driving and swimming /s
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It’s a bridge, just hop up on the railing and let it rip
