A snowy street can capture a poorly moving person’s home – plowing robots are hoped for a relief for winter maintenance

Close -up is ice, sandy hassle and water on the street. There is snow next to the street. — The variable weather of the Finnish winter and the requirement for accessibility is not an easy equation.

Everyone should have an equal opportunity to move, but snow and slip may completely prevent you from leaving.

Winter conditions and poorly managed streets cannot be a barrier to people’s equal access to work or hobbies. This is the outline of the Equality Ombudsman.

In his view, it would be important to develop new ways to solve the problems caused by winter weather conditions in Finland more enthusiastically. One example is different applications that can be used to check the movements and routes of plowing equipment in real time.

– Such applications should become more common.

There is a large snowstorm along the street and snowy trees. In the background you can see modern apartment buildings and urban buildings. Cars have been parked on the edge of the road. — Snow piles make visibility difficult and take parking spaces, sometimes accessible parking spaces. Illustration.

For example, the map service of the City of Lahti shows plowing and lounging and slipping movements.

Hätönen, for example, visions the arrival of plow robots alongside the food messenger robots.

– Small plow robots could handle small items that are difficult to plow with large equipment, Hätönen says.

A suitable snow depth would be zero cent

Some municipalities have had to compromise on winter maintenance for streets for savings. For example, in Lahti, snow this winter will rain more before the plowing equipment starts.

According to Hätönen, the Invalid Federation has also been asked, which is a snow depth that is suitable for accessibility. It is impossible to give a cent, as the quality of the snow is also affected by movement. Most importantly, plowing is done as early as possible and also when the weather condenses.

– When the snow mattress on the road surface starts to melt, it causes really big difficulty, for example, in the case of wheels.

Sidewalks are usually the responsibility of the property owner

Especially the junctions of the streets and plots, as well as the representatives of the crosswalks, are places that snow often accumulates. At its worst, the snowstorms prevent the progress completely.

A plow tractor drives a bucket in the air in a snowy city in the middle of winter traffic. — This winter, the drivers have sometimes been very difficult. Archive in January Hämeenlinna.

The situation is complicated by the fact that the maintenance of different regions is part of the various operators. There are also location -specific differences in practice.

– The Maintenance Act assumes that the street must be in satisfactory condition. Of course, there are different perceptions of what is a satisfactory level. In Finnish conditions, it is not possible to start to always be summer, Taipale says.

Plot interfaces are problematic

For example, the subscription leading to the yard is the responsibility of the owner. Such interfaces can be problematic if the subscription is plowed and the owner will not remove the snow pile in time or is unable to.

– For example, elderly people living in a small house area can get stuck, Taipale says.

According to Taipale, some municipalities have been tried to open the subscriptions during the maintenance of the municipality. However, this increases the cost of the municipality. In addition, one has to consider on which the service is granted.

The legislative reform, which is currently ongoing, also involves regulation of street maintenance.

– Accessibility and equality issues are raised in the reform, so more precise regulation is probably coming, Taipale says.