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FINNISH ATTITUDES TOWARDS TRAFFIC

SUOMALAISTEN LIIKENNEASENTEET

The survey clarifies citizens' and decision-makers' attitudes towards traffic with the help of interviews. Altogether 1,025 citizens around Finland were asked their opinions about traffic and the state of transport in their domicile. Furthermore, 78 authorities, political decision-makers and people representing the media, who participate in transport planning as decision- or opinion-makers were interviewed. Their opinions were compared to those of the citizens. In addition, these groups' ideas of each others opinions were surveyed. Corresponding research has been done in several EU countries and in the Nordic Countries. Their results were also compared to the Finnish ones. The research show that the decision-makers do not possess in all respects enough information on the citizens' attitudes or mobility. According to the research, attitudes towards private motoring are a little more positive in Finland compared to other countries. Furthermore, Finns believe above average that problems caused by traffic may be removed with the help of technological development. The impacts of private cars are still considered tolerable in towns. According to 79% of citizens and 53% of decision-makers the impacts of private cars to the air quality are tolerable. This is considerably more than the average in other countries researched. Accident risk to pedestrians and cyclists is considered high in Finland, but not as high as in other countries. However, according to the survey, the citizens also want to limit private motoring in towns in Finland. In this respect, the decision-makers underestimate the people's will because citizens support both the construction of pedestrian streets and the measures that limit parking in town centres. Three quarters of Finns would like the transport policy and planning to promote environmentally friendly modes of transport such as public transport, walking and cycling. It is significant that the decision-makers and citizens misjudge each others' attitudes towards environmentally friendly modes of transport. The decision-makers do not believe that citizens would prefer these modes of transport but believe that they prefer private cars. Furthermore, the decision-makers' and citizens' views on Finland's public transport differ from one another in that citizens believe the public transport has deteriorated during the last four years whereas the decision-makers think it has improved. According to the survey, most of the decision-makers think that it is possible to increase the use of public transport, but mainly by using the so-called hard measures such as building the infrastructure.

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    ETELAESPLANADI 16-18
    HELSINKI,   Finland  FIN-00131
  • Publication Date: 1999

Language

  • Finnish

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Filing Info

  • Accession Number: 00822056
  • Record Type: Publication
  • Source Agency: VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland
  • ISBN: 951-723-524-0
  • Files: ITRD
  • Created Date: Jan 7 2002 12:00AM