Crash course-Car Parking in Helsinki centre needed

cors187 · Post by **cors187** » Wed Apr 17, 2013 1:59 pm

1.Free parking places after certain hrs
2.Reading the signs correctly.
3.Hints and Tips?

Anyone want to offer a crash course in car parking in Helsinki Centre and associated areas.
regards

**Sponsor:**

Huy · Post by **Huy** » Wed Apr 17, 2013 2:41 pm

One solution is to park in itakeskus and grab the metro to city center. Thats what I did instead of waiting in line on the way in and then fight to grab some rare parkingspot that might not be free. Too much hassle. Metro. Metro. Metro.

Mook · Post by **Mook** » Wed Apr 17, 2013 5:57 pm

Sure.

For you, I could take 60 Euros an hour. Full course - 3 hours. Succesful participants will receive a certificate. Unsucessful, a parking ticket.

Pursuivant · Post by **Pursuivant** » Thu Apr 18, 2013 7:19 pm

I wrote a manual here a while ago...

You have to look for the sign. There is a blue P that allows parking. Usually if it says a time, say like 2h or 30min and has a picture of the disc, that means you can park for the xnum time with the disc you show the next nearest half hour you came.
http://www.autokoululiitto.fi/images/61.gif
like there the 856

Then theres curbside parking which is forbidden unless its allowed. Usually streets are time-limited say like there is a "no parking" that says
8-18
(9-15)
Means that you can leave the car there on Saturday 15.01 and pick it up Monday 7.59 ... theres a few places that have a multitude of signs but generally they're pretty clear. Oh, and some places you have the fun even/odd day no-parking signs. The ticket parking is shown by a P-sign usually and theres a ticket machine visible. The machine also then says when you do need to pay a ticket. And what do you do with the ticket, you leave it on your dash so that the ticket lady can see it.

The parking halls usually give you a ticket when you come in, you carry it with and then go to the big machine when you are leaving and pay the ticket and then you get something like 15 minutes to drive out, so figure out where the car is first

Helsinki downtown you really pay from the nose, but the garages are the only semi-sensible way to find parking unless you know exactly where you're going.

And one thing foreigners always get snagged on is you may not park the car facing the wrong way... theres no roadside lines like in the UK, except for bus stops, so its always the signs one needs to look out for. And they're pretty strict on the "5m before zebra" rule (however after the zebra it can be right there)... and your normal bans from blocking intersections etc. No "french parking"

PARKING TEST

OK, so
a) is the car parked correctly
b) the clock is 12.03, how long time does the driver have to park?
c) the clock is 00.03, how long does the driver have to park?

OK, advanced parking. Explain to me

a) what does the sign say
b) when and if that car can be there
c) will it get a ticket at 20:00 saturday night?
d) bonus question, why the two no-parking signs?

cors187 · Post by **cors187** » Thu Apr 18, 2013 8:57 pm

Hmmm, hank your questions are too hard!

cors187 · Post by **cors187** » Thu Apr 18, 2013 9:05 pm

No parking truck and busses
No parking between 9 to 16:00
parking only between 16;01pm to 8:59am with 4 hr MAX
??

Rosamunda · Post by **Rosamunda** » Thu Apr 18, 2013 9:31 pm

Fail.
Car is facing the wrong way, wrong side of the road. No?

007 · Post by **007** » Fri Apr 19, 2013 12:30 am

No parking between 9 to 16:00

parking is also allowed between 9 to 16:00 and prohibited only when parking time exceeds 4 hours. Since there's only one time displayed from 9 to 16:00, the rule applies only on working days ie. from Monday to Friday. For Saturdays, there will be another display in brackets eg. (9 - 16:00), for holidays including Sundays, time is written in red, not black.

As far as I understand, P sign for areas made for parking, and those complicated signs are used for areas such as sides of the roads, that are not primarily meant for parking.

007 · Post by **007** » Fri Apr 19, 2013 12:36 am

Rosamunda wrote:Fail.
Car is facing the wrong way, wrong side of the road. No?

it's definitely facing the wrong way, but would it be okay if the car was parked on the left side of the road facing right direction? Obviously, if two cars are to be parked both left and right sides of the road, then there won't be any room left for other vechicles to pass by.

Any specific rules for this? or just a common sense?

edit: I am thinking right now answer might lie in where the pole stands.

nvm

Pursuivant · Post by **Pursuivant** » Fri Apr 19, 2013 2:09 am

Yeah, the car is facing the wrong way. So, even if it had a disc or it was there after 16, it would get a fine.

Pursuivant · Post by **Pursuivant** » Fri Apr 19, 2013 2:20 am

The time is always a restriction when the sign is valid. You see places with P and 24h. Usually when theres the no-parking sign the sign tells when its valid. If theres a disk sign, that tells how long you can park there, but that also gets restricted by the time. Like in the 2nd example, its 1/2 hours any time as theres no time restriction for it.

Why there are the two no parking signs is, the top one is valid always - but restricted to buses and vans. The second one has the 4hr restriction weekdays 9-16.

Flossy1978 · Post by **Flossy1978** » Fri Apr 19, 2013 10:30 am

You should forget about parking in the City area, unless you manage to get one of the places where you can pay by ticket machine, or underground like at Kamppi etc.

Many areas in the streets are designated zones for those who live in the area, now. Like Töölö. It's hell. You must have the special 'letter' with the zone card allowing you to park in most of that whole area. I think you can park in the Olympic stadium parking lot, then take a tram into town. Use to be able to years ago.

If you are coming to the city on the weekend, you could park at Ilmala station (it has a small parking lot which is full on weekdays, but is ok on weekends), then take the train into town. But then I guess it depends where you are coming from. It would be alright if coming from the Tampere direction. Perfect in fact. I've done it several times. The train runs quite frequently as you have the Espoo and Vantaankoski lines running through the station, though many of the Espoo trains don't stop at Ilmala anymore. All the Vantaankoski trains do.

Pursuivant · Post by **Pursuivant** » Fri Apr 19, 2013 10:54 am

There are your odd places you can park in the evenings, but you have to be aware which are 17 and which are 18, and need to be there exactly on the dot as after 10-15 minutes all spots are taken. You can get parked in Töölö or even in the Centre around Bulevardi, but you really need to spend a evening or two cruising, paying attention, and avoiding collisions with trams

riku2 · Post by **riku2** » Fri Apr 19, 2013 11:32 am

I avoid the city centre not just for the parking troubles but lack of white lines on the roads. some roads seem wide enough for two cars but don't have white lines to mark out lanes.So some people consider it two lanes wide and will overtake you - which is no fun when the road gets narrower and becomes physically not wide enough. I have seen this style of road layout in russia a lot (no white lines and a bit of a free for all) and that's probably where the inspiration comes from. I prefer the uk/german style where the road is marked with white paint to show the lanes and drivers don't decide for themselves how many lanes wide the road is going to be today.

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