28.3.2012

Tuureporinkatu to be revitalised with a cycle lane

Above: The cycle lane will be on the Turun Suomalaisen Yhteiskoulu side of Tuureporinkatu.

Yllä: Kauppiaskatu will have perpendicular parking to maintain parking space.

Yllä: Tornikatu will be calmed to allow light traffic only and will provide access to the planned Puutarhakutu cycle lane.

Tuureporinkatu between Brahenkatu and Kauppiaskatu will see the construction of a cycle lane, the planting of trees and new parking arrangements.

At a meeting on 13 March, the Environment and Planning Board approved changes to the area around Tuureporinkatu, which should be completed this autumn. The cycle lane will be built on the Turun Suomalaisen Yhteiskoulu side of Tuureporinkatu and is meant to lead cyclists onto Tornikatu. The cycle lane will continue to Puolalan koulu’s school gate.

– It’s good that even young school children will have the opportunity to use cycle lanes instead of the pavement, pointed out Turku’s Environment and Planning Agency's traffic engineer Jaana Mäkinen.

The other side of Tuureporinkatu will become six metres wide and a line of trees will be planted.

– The area will improve in terms of its townscape and become coherent with the rest of the city, said Mäkinen.

At the same meeting it was decided to calm Tornikatu by prohibiting through traffic on the street around the clock, and by setting a speed limit of 20 km/h. The prohibiting of through traffic was previously in force only during the night.

In connection with the changes to Tuureporinkatu, the parking spaces in the middle of the street will be removed. Furthermore, the angle parking places will be made perpendicular, providing extra parking space. In addition, the section of Kauppiaskatu between Läntinen Pitkäkatu and Tuureporinkatu will also have perpendicular parking.

Turku centre’s cycle lane network is gradually expanding

In Turku’s climate and environment plan, one objective is to have a connected cycle lane network through the city centre by 2015. The Environmental and City Planning Department is assessing the impact cycle lanes might have on business on Humalistonkatu and Puutarhakatu.

– Businesses demand that street parking locations are preserved, for example, on Humalistonkadutu. Under the guidelines cycling is encouraged, but putting the guidelines into practice has been more difficult than imagined. However, the plans are moving forward all the time, commented Mäkinen.

According to the plan, Humalistonkatu will experiment with cycle lanes that are common in Europe. In this case, costs will remain low as, rather than requiring construction, street space will just be reallocated to include metre wide cycle lanes with a safe space between them and  parking spaces.

A tentative plan has also been drawn up for making an unbroken cycle lane on Yliopistonkatu as well as transforming Kauppiaskatu and making it even more pedestrian friendly.

Read more:

• Climate and Environment Programme 2009-2013 (pdf) (Finnish)