The autumn is coming, bringing darkness, rain and unpredictable road conditions with it. At the same time, the risk of traffic accidents increases. How can motorists promote safety in autumn road traffic via their own actions? In this bulletin, you can find the key pointers of Fintraffic and Liikenneturva (Finnish Road Safety Council) for driving safely in the autumn.

The work on the traffic management system of Ring Road III between Highway 1 Turunväylä and Motorway 170 Itäväylä will be completed shortly. The renewed traffic information displays will be introduced as soon as at the turn of September and October.

Fintraffic road traffic centres operate 26 road and urban tunnels throughout Finland. The safety-critical nature of tunnels differs from that of the rest of the traffic environment, which is why ensuring uniform and safe operating methods is particularly important when working with tunnels. This has been addressed in the development of Fintraffic's road traffic management, and in recent years, for the first time ever a new training and testing method has been developed in Finland for the qualification of professionals working with tunnels. What is tunnel competence? How has the tunnel competence pilot progressed and what are the next steps?

The slowdown of Finland’s national economy has been reflected in traffic volumes and heavy goods transport in particular during the first three months of the year.

As of autumn 2023, Fintraffic Road will be utilising Waze’s data in traffic information displays to streamline traffic flow on Ring Road III. Fintraffic is involved in the “Waze for cities” programme, in which partners can utilise traffic data collected by Waze and also share their own data with Waze.

Uncertainty in the economy, the now-established trend for hybrid working, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine are still impacting road traffic volumes in Finland. During the last quarter of 2022, there were notably fewer passenger cars and heavy-duty vehicles on highways and main roads than a year earlier. In contrast, Lapland had its busiest Christmas season ever in terms of air traffic. All these insights were gleaned from Traffic Management Company Fintraffic’s October–December statistics.

Whereas the pandemic caused an unprecedented reduction in traffic in 2020, the lifting of restrictions in 2021 was reflected as an increase in various modes of transport. Demand for traffic data is also higher than ever before.