Sanctions for driving or riding on the pavement

Publication date 8.10.2021 12.48 | Published in English on 8.10.2021 at 13.42
News item

The control day held on Wednesday 6 October to improve the safety of vulnerable road users resulted in the issue of reprimands and traffic penalty fees to motorists for among other things failing to observe give-way rules and to cyclists and light e-vehicle drivers for being on the pavement.

“During the day, the police had to intervene in the behaviour of all road user groups. Most intervention was on the pavements, where there were road users who shouldn’t have been there,” says Chief Superintendent Heikki Kallio at the National Police Board.

The police would like to remind everyone that only children under the age of 12 may cycle on the pavement and only then where this does not significantly inconvenience other pedestrians. 

In addition, self-balancing light e-vehicles that remain balanced when the vehicle is not moving or has no driver may be operated on the pavement. In which case, the driver must give unhindered passage to pedestrians. 

Many vehicles on the pavements that should not be there

Kallio said that during the day, the police had to intervene in incidents of cars stopping and parking on cycleways, pavements or too close to pedestrian crossings. These offences resulted in the issue of six parking tickets. A total of 64 reprimands and fines were issued to drivers of vehicles who failed to give way at pedestrian crossings and continuations of cycle lanes. 

A total of 534 reprimands or traffic penalty fees were issued to cyclists. Most of these were issued for riding on the pavement or for not using lights in the dusk or darkness. 

Drivers of light e-vehicles received 89 sanctions, mostly for driving on the pavement. Pedestrians guilty of walking against the red light resulted in the issue of 103 sanctions.

“The aim of intensified control was to improve the safety of vulnerable road users. Control intervened in all traffic behaviour that jeopardised primarily the safety of pedestrians, cyclists and light e-vehicle drivers,” Kallio says.

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