High-tech solutions planned to ease transport between Helsinki and St. Petersbur

[cpzilliacus]

Helsingin Sanomat (English-language Web edition):  High-tech solutions planned to ease transport between Helsinki and St. Petersburg  - Traffic information automatically via smartphone or terminal in vehicle

Finland and Russia have agreed on the development of joint smartphone services for road transport between Helsinki and St. Petersburg.

"The "˜smart corridor' between Helsinki and St. Petersburg is to be developed into a new international model for a system that can be applied extensively in both Finland, Russia, and Europe" , says Matti Roine, a researcher at the Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT).

The system is to be tested on the E18 highway which links the EU and Russia. The portion of the highway that extends to the southern part of the border will undergo thorough changes in the coming years. The Kotka-Hamina segment will be upgraded to motorway status by 2015. After that, the section leading up to Vaalimaa, which is especially prone to back-ups, is to undergo a similar upgrade.

[Duke87]

Because while I'm driving down a freeway I should totally whip out my cellphone to read a text message about traffic ahead.

Realtime monitoring of situations is great, but the idea of texts or car terminals is needless reinvention of the wheel. Just install some VMS signs, guys...

[cpzilliacus]

Because while I'm driving down a freeway I should totally whip out my cellphone to read a text message about traffic ahead.

Realtime monitoring of situations is great, but the idea of texts or car terminals is needless reinvention of the wheel. Just install some VMS signs, guys...

There's the issue of language and character sets in this corridor.

In Finland, the official languages are Finnish and Swedish (and along much of the E18 corridor (which is also Finnish National Highway 7 between Helsinki and the Russian border crossing), there's enough population that speaks Swedish to warrant bilingual signs).  Both languages use the Latin character set, with three extra vowels (Ã¥, ä and ö) at the end of the alphabet.  And most of the Finnish population under the age of 70 or 65 speaks at least some English.

In Russia, well, the official language is Russian, and the character set is Cyrillic (I presume that somewhere there are VMS units that can be programmed for the Cyrillic characters, but I am not certain about that).

From what I have been told, the Russian drivers usually speak Russian and nothing else (even when they are driving west of the Finnish border ).

Because of the different languages involved, and because E18 in Finland is a favored route for commercial vehicle traffic to and from Russia, this project probably has some merit.

[Chris]

The Finland - Russia border is an outer border of both the EU and Schengen Treaty (free movement of goods/people), i.e. the border of "Fort Europe". Border backups can be significantly at Vaalimaa, mainly for trucks. It's not uncommon to have truck lines of 10 kilometers or more, it even reached 50 kilometers (30 miles) at times. It is one of a few major truck routes from Russia to the European Union. Vaalimaa is apparently one of the most advanced border crossings in Europe, highly automatic.

[J N Winkler]

Just a quick word about Finnish signs and bilingualism:  while Finnish and Swedish are indeed the official languages of Finland, the languages used on signs tend to be governed by traffic need, so Finland has a few standard signs with messages in four languages--Finnish, Swedish, Russian, and English.  It is my understanding that multilingualism in signing elsewhere tends to be spotty, as is also the case in Switzerland and Spain but not Wales:  most signs tend to be monolingual in the dominant language of the region, with bilingual signing confined to contact territory where there are relatively large proportions of speakers of both languages.

[cpzilliacus]

Just a quick word about Finnish signs and bilingualism:  while Finnish and Swedish are indeed the official languages of Finland, the languages used on signs tend to be governed by traffic need, so Finland has a few standard signs with messages in four languages--Finnish, Swedish, Russian, and English.  It is my understanding that multilingualism in signing elsewhere tends to be spotty, as is also the case in Switzerland and Spain but not Wales:  most signs tend to be monolingual in the dominant language of the region, with bilingual signing confined to contact territory where there are relatively large proportions of speakers of both languages.

In Finland, the need for bilingual signs is established by law.  Most of the country is monolingually Finnish, so that's the language that the signs are in. 

But much of southern Finland, and some parts of west coast Finland, there's enough Swedish-speaking population to justify signs in both languages.  In Helsinki, signs on the Metro, the extensive (1 meter gauge) tram system and on transit buses are in bilingual.

Many people from outside of Finland don't know that the Finnish island province of Ã...land is so monolingually Swedish that signs are not posted in Finnish.

[agentsteel53]

here's a sign in Norway with Norwegian, Finnish, Sami, English, and German



high-speed guide signs tend to have at most two languages, especially Norwegian/Russian in the regions in which I traveled.

[Chris]

The Cyrillic signs in Norway are rather interesting, because there is hardly any cross-border traffic, especially before a few years back when most of the Murmansk area was a closed area (much of the Kola peninsula still is). There are only a few border crossings between Finland/Norway and Russia and even fewer are open to all traffic. Some border crossings were/are apparently only for people doing business in Russia.

The Murmansk region is in a free-fall population decline, by more than 100,000 people per decade.

[cpzilliacus]

here's a sign in Norway with Norwegian, Finnish, Sami, English, and German

Nice image - I've driven much of the southern part of E8 along the west coast of Finland.

high-speed guide signs tend to have at most two languages, especially Norwegian/Russian in the regions in which I traveled.

This I have not seen before (though I have never been in the part of Norway near the Russian border crossing to  the Kola Peninsula).

Highway E6 runs  pretty much the length of Norway, entering from Sweden at the southeast corner of the country, then running all the  way to Kirkenes.

[cpzilliacus]

The Cyrillic signs in Norway are rather interesting, because there is hardly any cross-border traffic, especially before a few years back when most of the Murmansk area was a closed area (much of the Kola peninsula still is). There are only a few border crossings between Finland/Norway and Russia and even fewer are open to all traffic. Some border crossings were/are apparently only for people doing business in Russia.

The Murmansk region is in a free-fall population decline, by more than 100,000 people per decade.

Russia as a nation is (as best as I can tell, and I have never been there) losing population for an assortment of reasons.