The police will monitor traffic in built-up areas when school starts

The monitoring will focus on the vicinity of schools during the daytime from 4 to 22 August 2025. The goal of the monitoring is to improve traffic safety in built-up areas and in particular to ensure a safe journey to and from school for small schoolchildren, and to prevent traffic accidents. Police patrols will also be visibly present near schools.

“It has been shown that visible police surveillance calms down traffic and improves the safety and also the sense of safety of schoolchildren on their way to school,” says Chief Superintendent Heikki Kallio of the National Police Board.

Nationwide monitoring for three weeks from the beginning of August

In the coming weeks, the main focus of police enforcement will be on speeds and compliance with rules concerning pedestrian crossings. Speeds are monitored especially in the vicinity of schools and also in other risky locations in built-up areas.

In addition to speeds, the monitoring also concerns the following issues:

• traffic behaviour of cyclists and riders of light electric vehicles
• age monitoring of riders (persons under the age of 15 are no longer allowed to ride light electric vehicles)
• compliance with traffic lights 
• use of safety devices 
• factors that cause inattentiveness in traffic.

In terms of cyclists and riders of light electric vehicles, the police will pay special attention to whether there are more persons on board than what is allowed, whether the light electric vehicle is operated on pavements and whether the rules of giving way are followed when crossing pedestrian crossings.

Attention will also be paid to the safe stopping and parking of vehicles in accordance with the Road Traffic Act in the vicinity of schools and when bringing schoolchildren to school or picking them up from school.

According to the law, a child is always a living warning sign in traffic

“The Road Traffic Act requires special caution when approaching children. In practice, this means the use of a sufficiently low speed and being prepared for unexpected, even rule-breaking traffic behaviour. This is highlighted now that the smallest schoolchildren who are unaccustomed to traffic start to go to school. It is worth remembering that, even according to the law, a child is always a living warning sign in traffic,” Heikki Kallio points out.