Police to control compliance with pedestrian crossing rules and the behaviour in traffic of cyclists and e-scooter users

Publication date 19.4.2024 14.55
News item

The police will hold an intensive control campaign at pedestrian crossings from Monday to Friday in week 17. The police will also control how vulnerable users such as e-scooter users and cyclists comply with traffic rules and their safety.

Control will focus in particular on whether vehicle drivers comply with pedestrian crossing rules. The police will also actively monitor the behaviour of cyclists and operators of light e-vehicles to see whether they ride on the pavement and whether they heed the give-way rules and traffic lights.

”During the five-day campaign, we will also intervene in stopping and parking that inconveniences and endangers the mobility of vulnerable road users, in for example, the vicinity of pedestrian crossings, cycleways and cycle lanes,” says Chief Superintendent Heikki Kallio at the National Police Board of Finland.

Vulnerable road users account for a high rate of road traffic fatalities

 ”Vulnerable road users accounted for 33.5% of road traffic fatalities in Finland in 2023. This figure includes motorised two-wheeler vehicles. This is why the safety of these road user groups must constantly be a priority in traffic safety work,” Kallio points out.

Preliminary statistics published by Statistics Finland show that one cyclist and five pedestrians lost their lives in road traffic during the first three months of 2024.

The term vulnerable road user (VRU) is in international use and means for example, pedestrians, cyclists, users of e-scooters as well as other less protected road users such as moped riders.