Finland is one of the northernmost countries in the world. Despite the climate, finland may be called a country of cycling. The number of bicycles per capita in finland is the third highest in the world, exceeded only by the number in the netherlands and in denmark. The high automobile density (440 cars per 1, 000 residents) has not limited the number of bicycles. There are numerous cycling roads in finland, totaling about 8, 000 km including approximately 1, 300 underpasses and about 400 overpasses. The construction of roads for pedestrian and bicycle traffic in general was begun in the 1970s. Thereafter, the number of cyclists and pedestrians killed in traffic annuallyhas been reduced by more than half. To further improve cycling conditions in the future, accident statistics should be transformed on the basis of hospitalization statistics, and methods for better counting of pedestrian and bicycle traffic should be developed and implemented. This paper appears in transportation research record no. 1294, Nonmotorized transportation 1991 .
Abstract