Construction of the missing light traffic lane on Ristikiventie as soon as possible

We propose that the municipality immediately begin construction of a light traffic lane on Ristikiventie for the approximately 500-metre section that is currently missing, in order to improve safety for pedestrians and cyclists. Next to Ristikiventie, there is a light traffic lane covering approximately two-thirds of the distance from Lahelantie. The light traffic lane is missing for approximately 500 metres between Ojakärsämöntie and Nahkelantie.

Ristikiventie, which connects Lahelantie and Nahkelantie, is very busy and, due to the nature of the area, is also used by a lot of heavy traffic. The business area is home to activities that require heavy transport. There are also car and motorbike tuning workshops in the area, which is why there is a lot of speeding, hard acceleration and even drifting (i.e. deliberate skidding of cars or motorbikes) on the road.

The end of Lahelantie is lined with small houses, many of which are home to families with children, people with reduced mobility, people with developmental disabilities and elderly residents. The verges are very narrow and in poor condition in places, and are often used as parking spaces for heavy vehicles. Walking and cycling are particularly dangerous in winter when the road is narrow due to snow banks. Although there are low speed limits on the road, the lack of monitoring and speed bumps allows for high speeds. Construction has now begun on vacant plots along Ristiventie, making it even more unsafe for pedestrians and cyclists. There are many pedestrians and cyclists on the road

. The route is particularly popular in the summer, when residents go to the Häklin swimming area. There are many children and young people in traffic. The route is also part of a popular fitness trail in Lahela, which means there are plenty of people using it. In the future, the route is likely to be used even more by light traffic once the Lahelanpelto school campus is completed.

Over the past ten years, nearly 20 initiatives have been launched to improve traffic safety on Lahelantie and Ristikiventie and throughout the area (most recently in 2020 by Johanna Sipilä and in 2018 by Kati Lepojärvi). Attention has been paid to traffic safety on several occasions, for example when drawing up village safety plans (in 2017 and 2018), in separate safety reviews (2019–2021) and in planned road safety development projects. A pilot project was also supposed to be launched on this basis. However, none of these have led to any significant results. None of the promised measures, such as speed bumps, traffic lights and speed control, have been implemented. The missing light traffic route that is the subject of this initiative has been clearly raised with the municipal development director (Heikki Lonka), the head of community engineering (Petri Juhola) and the road engineer (Jukka-Matti Laakso) during on-site inspections in 2020 and 2021.

With this initiative, local residents are finally expecting concrete measures to improve traffic safety in the Lahelantie and Ristikiventie area!

This content has been translated using AI

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