Helsinki announced plans last month to go car free by 2050, a big step toward its goal of carbon neutrality by the same year.
To meet the goal, the Finnish city will convert inner-city roads to green spaces and pedestrian thoroughfares. That move will complement the already-existing park spaces that cover 47 percent of Helsinki.
The city is also opening new metro lines, doubling the number of trams by 2018, and increasing the cost of parking. Helsinki will also add a city bike share with 500 bikes across 50 stations in May. These efforts will help with the expected population growth of a quarter of a million residents over the next 34 years.
“We can’t put more cars on streets,” Ville Lehmuskoski, managing director, Helsinki City Transport, told Travel + Leisure. “The answer in the inner city is public transport by rail — trams and the metro. When Helsinki grows, public transport has to grow with it.”
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