The new Road Traffic Act aims for a safer future

On 23 November 2017, the Finnish Government submitted to Parliament its proposal on a new Road Traffic Act. The purpose of the new act is to improve the smooth running and safety of transport and create preconditions for the digitalisation and safe automation of traffic while making progress with deregulation.

The draft act collects all statutes applicable to road transport into a single, logical whole. Individual statutes have been reduced in number and simplified, and the authorities' procedures have been modernised.

The Road Traffic Act covers the principles of traffic and traffic rules, traffic control devices and traffic signs, the rules of operating vehicles and the consequences of traffic violations. According to Minister of Transport and Communications Anne Berner, the Road Traffic Act is one of the acts with the most far-reaching impacts on citizens' everyday lives, and for this reason, it must be as unambiguous and comprehensible as possible.

"The purpose of the legislation is to ensure that road users act as consistently and predictably as possible. A precondition for safe, smoothly running and thus ecological transport is that road users are sufficiently familiar with the rules of the road and understand their purpose. When road users understand the rules and perceive them correctly, they will be easier to follow, Minister Berner sums up.