There is a life-threatening traffic bottleneck on the outskirts of Helsinki

Helsinki an embarrassing psychological game awaits motorists in the region at one traffic junction.

The game is played both during rush hour and at completely unexpected times. I myself have witnessed it on Sunday evenings, when many people return from their leisure time apartments.

The focal point is the meeting point of Porvoonväylä and Lahdenväylä when driving south. It is located roughly next to Malmi Airport on the edge of Helsinki.

The flow of cars coming from two different directions does not connect here like a beautifully closing zipper. A backlog is like a jacket forgotten in the warehouse: the puller gets stuck and jumps over the teeth of the chain – until it completely falls apart.

There are many reasons for that and a new lane solution that will soon be looming.

Lively The meeting point of Lahtenväylä and the slightly calmer Porvoonväylä is clear on paper.

Two roads meet, then it’s about a kilometer straight. At the end of it, you have to decide if you want to continue straight towards the center of Helsinki or if you want to turn to Ring I.

So those coming from different directions have a kilometer and several lanes of time to think about their game moves. Many make their move right away, and lane hopping starts right away when the roads merge.

Different driving speeds complicate the matter. Lahtenväylä is driven straight and hard, while Porvoonväylä slows down to a narrowing curve during rush hours.

The rhythm of the rows of teeth in the zipper is therefore completely different.

How should act correctly in traffic?

It is a question of eternity, to which the law and the rules give chips, but in the endgame the driver always makes his own decision.

A classic example is emotional phenomenon: joining the highway from the acceleration lane. Already driving on the highway no need to dodge coming from the lane, but many do this as a reflex.

I think it’s pointless to blame the vagaries of traffic on a timid or brash driver. In Finland it was at the end of last year 3.8 million driver’s licenses – and thus just as many decisions behind the wheel.

Tens of thousands of decisions are made daily on the Lahdenväylä straight based on Fintraffic’s monitoring of traffic volumes. According to the authorities of the area functionality is importantbecause in it traffic from the provinces mixes with the transport network of the capital region.

A small mistake at high speeds can lead to a life-threatening situation. In 2012, a bad chain accident occurred on Lahdenväylä, in which two hundred cars.

The reason was the terrible weather. The end result is a message about the total forgetting of the speed of the situation – that is, that the speed must be adjusted to the conditions.

Branch manager Pekka Rajala The Finnish Railways Agency has considered the problems of the Lahdenväylä.

One of the main reasons is that many people aim to go directly to Ring I quickly. Rajala estimates that there is a queue of people who want to go there show unbroken at the beginning.

There’s an emergency: if I don’t go to the back of the queue right away, I won’t get to Kehä later. In reality, a couple of hundred meters ahead, there may already be a gap and a seam to infiltrate the queue.

Then there are the drivers who know this. They accelerate past first brakers only because they believe they can find a place to change lanes at the last minute with a kilometer to go.

“This is a little problematic, because there are two points of transition to that (Ring) ramp. When the new arrangement comes, this problem will disappear,” says Rajala.

Arrangement refers to an entirely new lane.

The joke is that it gets around the problems as a new route near Malmi Airport. The graphic at the beginning of this story clarifies the matter.

Those arriving along the Lahtenväylä must therefore decide well in advance whether their direction is the center or the Ring Road – and once the choice is made, after that there is no more “crossing” in Rajala’s words.

Change is a part a larger planwhere other traffic problems are solved. If everything goes smoothly, construction will start planning next year. Rajala estimates that we will hardly see any excavators until next summer.

“This is a multi-year project, it cannot be done by just one or two people.”

If it becomes a construction site that slows down traffic, you should remember that it has the noble goal of opening the bottleneck.

How then I drive from that point? Without planning, how it hurts, every time differently.

Let the one without sin cast the first stone.