this post was submitted on 19 Apr 2026
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Finland's longest bridge opens in Helsinki, and it has zero lanes for cars (yle.fi)
submitted 17 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago) by turdas@suppo.fi to c/fuckcars@lemmy.world
36 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

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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[–] Dojan@pawb.social 11 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

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.

[–] quick_snail@feddit.nl 1 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

There are direct actions that you can do to convert one of the car lanes into a pedestrian lane.

[–] Dojan@pawb.social 4 points 8 hours ago

I'm not taking the chances with my dog.

[–] Lehmuusa@nord.pub 47 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

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??

[–] ApathyTree@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago) (2 children)

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

[–] Lehmuusa@nord.pub 1 points 2 hours ago

Hey, thanks for the clarification!

[–] kunaltyagi@programming.dev 1 points 4 hours ago

That word felt full of whimsy, but I attributed it to English being a second language, not whimsy :(

Nice dive though

[–] Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 54 points 16 hours ago (3 children)

This must make the car brains incredibly mad. I love it.

[–] TheTechnician27@lemmy.world 37 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago) (2 children)

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.

[–] turdas@suppo.fi 14 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

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.

[–] TheTechnician27@lemmy.world 3 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago)

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.

[–] Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 6 points 16 hours ago (2 children)

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.

[–] Miaou@jlai.lu 1 points 1 hour ago

Finland doesn't have a domestic car industry, so the push back was probably quite limited

[–] TheTechnician27@lemmy.world 5 points 16 hours ago

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.

[–] HuudaHarkiten@piefed.social 9 points 16 hours ago

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.

[–] Lehmuusa@nord.pub 6 points 15 hours ago

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.

[–] TheTechnician27@lemmy.world 13 points 15 hours ago (4 children)

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?

[–] napkin2020@sh.itjust.works 5 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

> Rest of the world: We're fucked.
> Nordic countries: TENT SAUNA ON PEDESTRIAN ONLY BRIDGE

[–] Dojan@pawb.social 7 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

as 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.

It was possibly the greatest fanfare of all time.

[–] TheTechnician27@lemmy.world 4 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

That's seriously incredible. Thank you for sharing.

[–] Dojan@pawb.social 3 points 10 hours ago

I think what tops it off for me is someone nearby commenting "härligt!" at the end. Meaning roughly "lovely" or "wonderful."

[–] Lehmuusa@nord.pub 22 points 15 hours ago (3 children)

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.

[–] NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world 12 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

Please spread your ways. We need more Saunas here.

[–] Lehmuusa@nord.pub 4 points 14 hours ago

Try searching for these three in some image search or video platform:

  • Telttasauna
  • Saunavaunu
  • Saunalautta
[–] crimson_iris@piefed.social 2 points 13 hours ago

"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.

[–] Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 1 points 14 hours ago (2 children)

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.

[–] Lehmuusa@nord.pub 1 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

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!

[–] Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 1 points 1 hour ago

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.

[–] balgruuf@nord.pub 5 points 13 hours ago

You should get better results with the finnish word "telttasauna". Normally it would have a small wood stove.

[–] Riverside@reddthat.com 2 points 10 hours ago

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.

[–] Digit@lemmy.wtf -2 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago) (1 children)

Does it have public toilets dotted along the long journey?

[–] kunaltyagi@programming.dev 3 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

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

[–] Malyca@lemmy.zip 3 points 15 hours ago

Finland doing it right as usual