Downtown Helsinki is a rather narrow piece of land pointing towards the sea. This geography can easily jam the rush hour and even weekend traffic. Driving to your downtown office and back can be painstaking unless you have a reserved parking space. If you are lucky enough to live and work in or in the vicinity of the city centre walking is often the smartest and quickest way to move around. For those living a bit further in the satellite areas, nothing beats the local trains.
Helsinki's public transportation system
Thankfully, the Helsinki Metropolitan area has a well-functioning public transport system, and it is expanding considerably within a few years. Migration and ecological arguments have speeded up the plans for new routes and practices
The current metro has twenty-five stops, and there will be a few more within a few years. The travel time from Matinkylä to Mellunmäki, (the world's northernmost metro station) or Vuosaari via Helsinki city centre is approximately 39 minutes. Tram network is reaching out to new suburbs, and there will be a brand new 25 kilometres light train connection stretching out from east to west by 2024. The area consists of four cities and several satellite communities.
Transportation tickets in Helsinki
Helsinki Region Transport (HSL) is divided into four zones, and ticket prices are based on the distance travelled. Conveniently enough, trains buses, trams, metro, and ferries create a unified and complementary system where commuting is possible using a single ticket.
Single tickets are available from ticket machines, R-kiosks and on buses. They are not sold on trams and commuter trains. When buying a ticket from the bus driver, carry some small change, preferably coins. Drivers do not carry much change, and they do not have to accept notes larger than 20 euros. Debit and credit cards are not accepted on buses. Significantly the easiest and cheapest way to travel in the area is to use an HSL Travel Card, on which you can load either season tickets or value.
Available is, of course, an easy to use HSL app on your mobile phone. It can be used to buy adult and child (7-17 years) single tickets, adult and child day tickets (1-7 days), and 30-day tickets for adults - either as a one-off purchase or as an auto-renewing subscription. Children up to six years are free of charge.
Also, university students and students of universities of applied sciences can buy 30-day tickets on the app as a one-off purchase. Students get a 45 per cent discount on adult rates.
Good to know:
If you do not have a valid ticket, you are charged a penalty fare of 80 euros and the price of a single ticket. When travelling on the metro, you must have the ticket before you enter the metro payment area.
The overall majority of buses, trams and trains, and of course, metro, are easily accessible also for people having disabilities. Metro stations have lifts.
Driving in Helsinki
In case you are driving, the city has provided some HSL “park and ride” -parking lots. Those can be found next to public transport stations and stops, and you can continue the journey by bus, metro, tram or local train. For relatively short term use, Drive Now carpool service has become popular. Service members can pick up a car and then return it and leave it almost anywhere in the city without a parking fee.
In downtown Helsinki, parking fee supply and charges depend on the parking zones. Parking is free on Saturdays in Zone 3, and Sundays and Holidays in all zones, with some exceptions. There are also several paid parking facilities, such as Euro Park and Q-park.
Cycling in Helsinki
Cycling is increasing its popularity every year, partly because of milder and shorter winters. “Baana” is the city's cardiovascular system for those preferring two wheels or skateboards. It constitutes part of a 1,200-kilometre network of bike paths in Helsinki from the “Central Park” to the north to the ferry harbours to the south, from the city centre to the quiet fields and forests in the surrounding countryside.
Owning a bike is not a necessity. You can rent one or use city bikes. Yellow city bikes are shared-use bicycles that can be borrowed for a fee by anyone in Helsinki and Espoo from early April till the end of October. There were 3,450 bikes available in summer of 2019. Helsinki has 238 bike stations to the south of Ring Road I. Or you can always use the city scooters available all year round.
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