How roads are cleaned in Finland. How snow is cleared in different countries of the world Roads in Finland in winter

February 2012

My husband and I have prepared a short article about roads in Finland, since we ourselves love to travel by car. Danya (my husband) has been to Finland about 10 times. Most often - by car. In this joint post of ours, Danya talks about the roads of Finland (briefly and dryly, like a real man), gives useful advice to former and future travelers, talks about parking and basic rules... in general, shares her experience. And I add a little feminine thoughts :)

Using low beams and fog lights

The low beam on the car must always be on while driving.

Fog lights may only be used when they are really necessary (in fog, snow).

Anti-radar

Prohibited as a class; if detected while crossing the border, there is a high chance of not crossing that very border.

Speed ​​mode

The standard speed limit is 50 km/h in built-up areas, 80 km/h outside built-up areas. Signs indicating the permitted speed are often, very often.

Speed ​​control on roads

In many places, cameras are installed that record speed and take a photo of the car in case of violation. Signs hanging 200-300 meters before the camera installation site honestly warn about them. But there are also completely invisible and unadvertised cameras hanging there. If you see a flash, it almost 100% means that you have broken something.

Changing speed signs depending on conditions

Depending on road conditions, the speed may be automatically limited. On large highways, speed limit signs are electronic and can change their numbers.

Parking on the highway

Parking on the side of the road is not permitted - special parking lots are located along the entire route, approximately tens of kilometers away.

Parking outside populated areas on a road with a “main road” sign is prohibited; there are places for parking specially designated for this, marked with the letter P. This may simply be a widening of the roadway, or there may be a road extending away from the main road with a platform at the end , toilets, gazebos, benches, information about the region.

Roads in winter

The roads are rougher, but cleaner. The road surface feels more slippery, especially in the city. There is no salt on the roads; they are sprinkled with granite chips. But we used the washer twice during the whole trip. After returning to Russian territory, the washer reservoir ran out at 100 kilometers.

Pedestrians

Pedestrians are sacred! They may not even look when they cross the road. In Finland there are no crossings on roads with a speed of more than 60. Pedestrians are either very loved or very afraid. We did not encounter a single pedestrian crossing on the highway where the permitted speed was more than 60 km/h. If you still need to cross the highway, then a few hundred meters away from it a sign is placed limiting the speed to 60. Outside populated areas, very often there are crossings with an island in the middle, and when it is dark, this island is illuminated.

Roundabout Circulation

Many intersections of equivalent roads are organized in the form of a roundabout. It's quite convenient. The main one is the one who is already on the circle, and not the one who enters it.

Left Lane

No one drives in the left lane - it is only for overtaking.

When driving on roads with two lanes in one direction (to be honest, I have never seen roads with three lanes), the left lane is always free, no one drives on it, it is only for overtaking. Overtook and back into the right lane.

Did turn signals invent panties?

Everyone always uses a turn signal. Unfortunately, in Russia it is becoming almost indecent to use it. The only car that did not show a turn signal during our entire trip had the region number 177 rus :)

Rapidly changing traffic lights in the city

Traffic lights change unusually quickly (especially in cities). The yellow signal is almost invisible, and the green signal does not blink.

A traffic light with an arrow is a separate traffic light

On our way there were no so-called traffic lights with arrows. The arrow is a separate full-fledged traffic light with its own red, yellow and even green colors.

About parking

You cannot stand in the courtyards - a fine of 40 euros.

The courtyard of the house is considered private territory and the entrance to it is decorated with signs warning that parking in the courtyard may result in a fine of 40 euros.

In 600 km of driving in Finland, we encountered only one police car, and that one was in the night, but it was shamelessly violating speed limits :)

They violate everything for 10 kilometers.

Of course, no one follows the speed limit literally; almost everyone breaks the speed limit within 5-10 kilometers.

Another observation is that the farther the country is from Russia, the fewer conditional porshicayens are found on the roads. During my approximately 10 stays in Finland, I met only 1 Cayenne and 2 Audi Q7 with Finnish license plates. In Estonia this number is already several orders of magnitude greater. Now let's look out the window...

In general, Yelopukki’s relatives do not drive the latest car market products. There are a lot of old cars, but they are all in very good condition. In one of the parking lots next to us there was an Opel Kadett; the car was finally discontinued in 1991, that is, it is now at least 21 years old. The main problem of these cars is the rusting rear arches, which is easy to see if you come across such an example on our roads - either there will be a lot of welding marks in this place, or a lot of rust. Everything about the Finnish cadet was familiar, at least it felt like it.

And now I’ve taken Dani’s computer away and I want to say a few words as a navigator.

Maps and navigator

In fact, the Tom-Tom navigator works as a real navigator in our car. He knows all the roads (even country roads) in Finland and takes us everywhere perfectly. Therefore, when getting ready to travel, I advise you to get a navigator and fill it with places of interest. We call our navigator Natasha (he has a woman’s voice), we lovingly disobey him if we know better where we need to go... and we take him on walking walks around the city! Very comfortably. Of course, we always have with us a paper road map of Finland (bought once on Nesta) and maps of the region and city where we are going. First of all, when we get to a new place, we go to tourist information - we collect maps and booklets on interesting places. Sometimes maps can be found in the parking lot.

Points of interest signs

All of Finland is full of signs. But not traffic signs, but information signs - where there is something interesting.

A white monogram on a brown background with the name of the attraction and how many kilometers to the place. Oh, if only there were guidebooks where all these places are described.

Good luck on the roads!

poppismic
24/02/2012 02:57

The opinions of tourists may not coincide with the opinions of the editors.

How is the fight against the elements going in other countries? This is something incredible!

In contact with

Classmates

Finland

Finnish roads are handled by the Road Administration (Finnish: Tiehallinto), an agency subordinate to the Ministry of Transport and Communications. A day before the upcoming snowfall, Department officials hold a meeting and analyze their reserves.

The road network is divided into five classes of winter maintenance, each of them has its own standards for the quality of work to eliminate slipperiness, the height of the snow cover and the uniformity of the ice layer.

The highest priority is given to the busiest highways and streets. By the beginning of the working day, the snow level should not exceed two (!) centimeters.

The method of spreading sand and other abrasive (hard and fine-grained) materials is called frictional: ice cannot be completely eliminated by this method, but road traction is improved.

The main condition for using this technology is that roads need to be cleaned almost to the asphalt immediately after or during a snowfall. All central streets of Helsinki are heated, and the parking system is well-functioning. But the main thing is information and accurate
calculation.

Helsinki after snowfall:

Salt is used mainly at 6,000 – 7,000 km (the total length of the public road network is 78,000 km). In areas close to groundwater, sodium chloride is replaced with a biodegradable deicing material.

One of the innovative solutions in clearing roads from snow is the use of snowplows with two side dumps, which makes it possible to clear snow from the roadway of a two-lane road with one machine, whereas previously this required two machines.

With the help of modern technology, the Finns clean roads at a speed of 80-90 kilometers per hour. Such machines are taken care of extremely carefully: they are stored in a heated hangar, equipment is changed there and maintenance is carried out. And repairs can only be done at a dealership: it’s expensive, but the cars last for two decades.

Sweden

Every year, 200 million euros are allocated from the budget for road maintenance.

Nationwide, winter road maintenance accounts for 65% of the annual budget. And this is quite a lot. In winter, road work involves 2,600 snowplows, 900 salt spreaders, 1,000 sand spreaders, 10 rotary snow blowers, as well as graders, forklifts and agricultural tractors.

In 2004, Sweden introduced a new method of dealing with snow, which was invented by the Swedish scientist Thorgeir Vaa. Fine sand in a ratio of 7 to 3 is mixed with hot water at 90–95 ° C and sprayed on the streets.

Hot sand melts into the snow and makes the surface rough. This treatment is enough for 3–7 days with a daily traffic of about 1,500 cars. The entire territory of Sweden is surrounded by a network of weather stations (today there are 770 stations) that provide information about weather conditions on the roads.

Based on this data, maps are drawn up to forecast the condition of roads.

USA and Canada

In North America, warning systems are of great importance.

In the States, the Clarrice System combines data from all federal highways, collected from more than 50,000 individual sensors at 2,200 weather stations in 38 states. The system transmits information to operators about weather conditions on various sections of the road so that prompt measures can be taken.

The second element is the Decision Support System (MDSS). It is designed to help road maintenance managers make timely decisions that are adequate to the prevailing road conditions.

The source for it is precisely the data collected by the Clarrice system. The third innovative element of the information system is the prompt informing of drivers about the road situation, weather conditions and possible alternative routes.

Americans and Canadians use one of the most effective methods of snow removal. A car with a special trailer and a bucket in front drives along the road; when it accelerates, its trailer turns across and thus clears the roadway.

Magnesium chloride, which is mined in the Great Salt Lakes in Utah, is used primarily to clean streets and sidewalks. MgCl2 contains less chlorine than other chlorides, and its efficiency is much higher at lower consumption.

In the winter of 2010, the state of Maryland spent $50 million on road cleaning, and the state of Virginia spent $79 million. In Canada, $1 billion is allocated annually for winter road maintenance.

Snowfall in Canada:

Japan

In the mountains of Japan, up to several meters of snow falls during the winter, and in cities - 15–20 cm per night. In places with hot springs, sprinklers are built into the road and water constantly flows during the snow, which is why it melts.

In those areas where such methods are ineffective, a different approach is used. First, a special machine with a drill drives into the snow, which makes a way for the rest of the equipment.

Excavators and snow-raking equipment immediately follow. Snow from the road is poured onto the slopes and leveled vertically with an excavator bucket.

As a result, by the end of winter, sidewalks and intercity roads turn into narrow snow canyons with walls 2 human heights or higher. At the same time, roads in Japan are not treated in any way, only the snow is cleared off.

“Avtostolitsa” learned how Finno-Ugric brothers fight snow in their cities

An ordinary day in an ordinary Finnish city of Lappeenranta. The photo clearly shows that the rotary attachment of the tractor throws snow from the roadway over the sidewalk. Neither the road itself nor the pedestrian path have been cleared to asphalt.

In Russia, winter is traditionally the time for complainers. The population complains about snow and ice on the roads. Special services fight ice by generously sprinkling transport and pedestrian arteries with a mixture of sand and salt. Complainants are unhappy with neither. Salt, in their opinion, corrodes cars and shoes, sand becomes the main stain. Complainants traditionally point to neighboring Europe and, in particular, Finland, whose climate is similar to Russia. In this regard, DENIS TYURKIN became interested in the road services of the Finno-Ugric brothers: how do they deal with ice? Do they sprinkle sand? Or salt? Or something else?

Interlocutors

Through complex, intricate schemes, thanks to religious figures, book publishers and the World Wide Web, the “S” correspondent reached two residents of blessed Finland, who act as our experts in this material. Mentally shake their hands. Yucca Repo. He is engaged in the automobile business and has his own license plate production company. By the way, he lived for some time in Russia - in St. Petersburg and... Saransk. Now he lives in the village of Muukko near the city of Lappeenranta. This place is notable for its karting track, named after the great Finnish racer Kimmi Raikkonen. The Formula 1 pilot trained in Lappeenranta in his youth, so having a karting track there comes in handy...

The second expert is Matti Himmi, a sort of chief road engineer at the Lappeenranta municipality. It is responsible for cleaning and maintaining all local transport arteries. Lappeenranta is inferior to Saransk in terms of the number of inhabitants - approximately 80 thousand, but significantly exceeds it in area. If the capital of Mordovia occupies 71.6 square kilometers, then the Finnish city is more than 1,700 “squares”! And even if we subtract 200 square kilometers of water surface, then the remaining area should impress a resident of Saransk. “The streets in Lappeenranta are larger, which means there is significantly more work for special services than in Saransk,” says Jukka Repo.

Saving

As Matti Himmi explains, in Finland they take into account how expensive snow removal will be. We can say that economic feasibility is at the forefront. In this regard, there are three ways. The first is cleaning the roadway with two trucks with dumps. The first one drives in the middle of the road, the second one cleans up the remains behind the first one, shoveling snow to the side of the road. The method is considered the most effective and economical. The second is cleaning with tractors with a rotary attachment, which throws snow several meters. And if trucks are the property of the municipality, then tractors belong to private owners. In winter, the city enters into an agreement with the owners of such vehicles. In the summer, snow removal equipment is removed from tractors and used in agriculture. This is also considered effective, because the equipment is used all year round, bringing benefits and not sitting idle in the garage. The third method is considered the most expensive. It is associated with the removal of snow outside the city by truck from those areas where it is necessary.

Now about what they sprinkle on roads and sidewalks in Finland. Significant highways and major streets are treated with pure salt. True, as Matti Himmi notes, this technology is gradually being eliminated from life in the country, since it is harmful to the environment: artesian springs are polluted, the soil is damaged... Sidewalks, pedestrian and bicycle paths (yes, Suomi residents do not abandon two-wheeled vehicles even in winter! ) are sprinkled only with granite chips and nothing more: they are not treated with salt! As for the sand. It can only be used on small village roads; it is not used in cities.

With and without spikes

Snow is specially left on secondary rural paths so as not to damage the surface during cleaning. They try to clean other transport arteries down to the asphalt, but without fanaticism, so as not to damage the coating. In cities, there is generally no direct requirement for road workers to clean roads down to asphalt. This is simply not necessary, since the vast majority of passenger cars in Finland are equipped with studded tires in winter. According to Jukka Repo, such car enthusiasts help those who drive friction tires without studs. How? The metal loosens the ice, improving grip! This is the opinion. Here's an interesting trend. Recently, in northern countries like Sweden and Finland, the number of cars with studless tires has begun to increase. In this way, local drivers try to minimize the damage caused by spikes to the road surface. And officials also explain to them that buying cheaper tires, which are friction tires, is economically beneficial. But there are no strict legal restrictions in this regard yet, so most people drive the old fashioned way - with spikes.

The main conclusion that our experts draw is not how well the roads in Finland are cleaned. And what kind of car tires do the Finns use to make their trip safe? That is, the emphasis is on the driver’s awareness and his attitude towards winter driving. By the way, in this country there is a rule prohibiting the use of winter tires with a remaining tread depth of less than 6 millimeters. If you fail to comply, you will receive a large fine! For comparison, in Russia only on January 1, 2015, the “winter tire standard” came into force, but it is much softer. In our country, the remaining tread depth can be 4 mm.

Speed

Do the speed limits on Finnish highways change in winter? Yes. According to Jukka Repo, on highways where the maximum speed limit in summer is 100 km/h, in winter it is prohibited to accelerate over 80 km/h. On new major highways built in the last five years, the limit is flexible depending on the current weather. Some areas there have their own miniature weather stations. According to their testimony, road workers set speed limits and warn drivers about this using interactive electronic boards that stand on the highway. For example, during a conversation with Finnish experts, which took place on February 2, it was freezing rain and poor visibility on the outskirts of Lappeenranta. The situation was difficult, so the road workers decided to set a low speed limit. In cities in winter, nothing changes; there the limit is from 30 to 60 km/h. “Of course, if it’s slippery, people try to drive more quietly,” says Jukka Repo. - When I lived in your country, I was amazed at some Russians who, even in icy conditions, allowed themselves to accelerate to 100 km/h and above. This is unacceptable".

By the way

According to Jukka Repo, in Finland there is such a procedure: if you break, for example, your leg when you slipped, then your treatment is paid for by the company responsible for cleaning the area where you were unlucky enough to fall.

“People in Finland are responsible for their work,” says the businessman. - Personal responsibility motivates. If I work well, it means that no one falls on my territory and I will not need to pay compensation. But if it’s bad, then I won’t have any money left to live on.”

Every high-rise building in this country has a building management council, which includes active residents. They contract with third-party cleaning companies and make decisions for their neighbors.

“Avtostolitsa” learned how Finno-Ugric brothers fight snow in their cities

An ordinary day in an ordinary Finnish city of Lappeenranta. The photo clearly shows that the rotary attachment of the tractor throws snow from the roadway over the sidewalk. Neither the road itself nor the pedestrian path have been cleared to asphalt.

In Russia, winter is traditionally the time for complainers. The population complains about snow and ice on the roads. Special services fight ice by generously sprinkling transport and pedestrian arteries with a mixture of sand and salt. Complainants are unhappy with neither. Salt, in their opinion, corrodes cars and shoes, sand becomes the main stain. Complainants traditionally point to neighboring Europe and, in particular, Finland, whose climate is similar to Russia. In this regard, DENIS TYURKIN became interested in the road services of the Finno-Ugric brothers: how do they deal with ice? Do they sprinkle sand? Or salt? Or something else?

Interlocutors

Through complex, intricate schemes, thanks to religious figures, book publishers and the World Wide Web, the “S” correspondent reached two residents of blessed Finland, who act as our experts in this material. Mentally shake their hands. Yucca Repo. He is engaged in the automobile business and has his own license plate production company. By the way, he lived for some time in Russia - in St. Petersburg and... Saransk. Now he lives in the village of Muukko near the city of Lappeenranta. This place is notable for its karting track, named after the great Finnish racer Kimmi Raikkonen. The Formula 1 pilot trained in Lappeenranta in his youth, so having a karting track there comes in handy...

The second expert is Matti Himmi, a sort of chief road engineer at the Lappeenranta municipality. It is responsible for cleaning and maintaining all local transport arteries. Lappeenranta is inferior to Saransk in terms of the number of inhabitants - approximately 80 thousand, but significantly exceeds it in area. If the capital of Mordovia occupies 71.6 square kilometers, then the Finnish city is more than 1,700 “squares”! And even if we subtract 200 square kilometers of water surface, then the remaining area should impress a resident of Saransk. “The streets in Lappeenranta are larger, which means there is significantly more work for special services than in Saransk,” says Jukka Repo.

Saving

As Matti Himmi explains, in Finland they take into account how expensive snow removal will be. We can say that economic feasibility is at the forefront. In this regard, there are three ways. The first is cleaning the roadway with two trucks with dumps. The first one drives in the middle of the road, the second one cleans up the remains behind the first one, shoveling snow to the side of the road. The method is considered the most effective and economical. The second is cleaning with tractors with a rotary attachment, which throws snow several meters. And if trucks are the property of the municipality, then tractors belong to private owners. In winter, the city enters into an agreement with the owners of such vehicles. In the summer, snow removal equipment is removed from tractors and used in agriculture. This is also considered effective, because the equipment is used all year round, bringing benefits and not sitting idle in the garage. The third method is considered the most expensive. It is associated with the removal of snow outside the city by truck from those areas where it is necessary.

Now about what they sprinkle on roads and sidewalks in Finland. Significant highways and major streets are treated with pure salt. True, as Matti Himmi notes, this technology is gradually being eliminated from life in the country, since it is harmful to the environment: artesian springs are polluted, the soil is damaged... Sidewalks, pedestrian and bicycle paths (yes, Suomi residents do not abandon two-wheeled vehicles even in winter! ) are sprinkled only with granite chips and nothing more: they are not treated with salt! As for the sand. It can only be used on small village roads; it is not used in cities.

With and without spikes

Snow is specially left on secondary rural paths so as not to damage the surface during cleaning. They try to clean other transport arteries down to the asphalt, but without fanaticism, so as not to damage the coating. In cities, there is generally no direct requirement for road workers to clean roads down to asphalt. This is simply not necessary, since the vast majority of passenger cars in Finland are equipped with studded tires in winter. According to Jukka Repo, such car enthusiasts help those who drive friction tires without studs. How? The metal loosens the ice, improving grip! This is the opinion. Here's an interesting trend. Recently, in northern countries like Sweden and Finland, the number of cars with studless tires has begun to increase. In this way, local drivers try to minimize the damage caused by spikes to the road surface. And officials also explain to them that buying cheaper tires, which are friction tires, is economically beneficial. But there are no strict legal restrictions in this regard yet, so most people drive the old fashioned way - with spikes.

The main conclusion that our experts draw is not how well the roads in Finland are cleaned. And what kind of car tires do the Finns use to make their trip safe? That is, the emphasis is on the driver’s awareness and his attitude towards winter driving. By the way, in this country there is a rule prohibiting the use of winter tires with a remaining tread depth of less than 6 millimeters. If you fail to comply, you will receive a large fine! For comparison, in Russia only on January 1, 2015, the “winter tire standard” came into force, but it is much softer. In our country, the remaining tread depth can be 4 mm.

Speed

Do the speed limits on Finnish highways change in winter? Yes. According to Jukka Repo, on highways where the maximum speed limit in summer is 100 km/h, in winter it is prohibited to accelerate over 80 km/h. On new major highways built in the last five years, the limit is flexible depending on the current weather. Some areas there have their own miniature weather stations. According to their testimony, road workers set speed limits and warn drivers about this using interactive electronic boards that stand on the highway. For example, during a conversation with Finnish experts, which took place on February 2, it was freezing rain and poor visibility on the outskirts of Lappeenranta. The situation was difficult, so the road workers decided to set a low speed limit. In cities in winter, nothing changes; there the limit is from 30 to 60 km/h. “Of course, if it’s slippery, people try to drive more quietly,” says Jukka Repo. - When I lived in your country, I was amazed at some Russians who, even in icy conditions, allowed themselves to accelerate to 100 km/h and above. This is unacceptable".

By the way

According to Jukka Repo, in Finland there is such a procedure: if you break, for example, your leg when you slipped, then your treatment is paid for by the company responsible for cleaning the area where you were unlucky enough to fall.

“People in Finland are responsible for their work,” says the businessman. - Personal responsibility motivates. If I work well, it means that no one falls on my territory and I will not need to pay compensation. But if it’s bad, then I won’t have any money left to live on.”

Every high-rise building in this country has a building management council, which includes active residents. They contract with third-party cleaning companies and make decisions for their neighbors.

Finns sometimes find quite successful solutions to various everyday issues. Finland is a northern country, so here, as in Russia, there is a lot of snow in winter. Too much snow and ice. This makes it difficult to drive safely in winter. Nokian winter tires alone are not enough here. In addition, past the cars there are also pedestrians and bicycles. Many believe that the only way to deal with ice and snow on the roads is to water the roadway and sidewalks with reagents, which melt the snow and ice, ensuring direct contact of the car's tires with the road. However, there are other interesting methods that are used in Finland and which we will tell you about today.

Various chemical reagents, even such as salt, of course clean the road, but at the same time cause significant harm to the environment: they damage the cars themselves and shoes. Many people are very unhappy because their car is rotting faster, and their boots are constantly covered in white stains in winter.

Gravel instead of reagents and sand

You can sprinkle sand on the road, but the sand litters the city, which is already full of dust in the spring. Finns very often use fine gravel instead of sand and reagents. The size of gravel chips that are sprinkled on roads in Finland ranges from a few millimeters to a centimeter, that is, it is not sand or dust, but small sharp pebbles.

This is what the pebbles that Finns use to sprinkle roads in winter look like.

The stones work very effectively. The pebbles are sharp and cut into both the ice and the sole of your shoe or the tire tread of your car or bicycle, providing good traction on both snow and ice. Pebbles do not need to be sprinkled every day, but only when snow has fallen, or there is ice on the road due to weather conditions. I sprinkled them with stones and they lay there until the next snowfall. I don’t know how often you have to pour stones, but it seems to me that on average it happens no more than once a week. The stones work quite well, providing good contact with the road for pedestrians, bicycles and cars traveling at low speeds in the city.

Stones have another significant advantage. In addition to the fact that stones are natural to the environment, unlike chemical reagents, they can be collected and used a second time. The pebbles are quite heavy and, unlike sand, remain until spring in the place where they were poured. In the spring, as soon as the frost stops, pebbles are collected very quickly throughout Finland.

Several tractors can collect stones from an entire street in a couple of hours...

Pebbles are collected, firstly, to be used next winter, because Finns are very thrifty. And secondly, to clean the roadway. Once the snow melts, the pebbles on the road become somewhat dangerous. A pile of pebbles scattered on the asphalt behaves like a bunch of small balls. If you brake sharply on pebbles on asphalt without ice and snow, the car or bicycle will roll further. At low speeds up to 40 km/h this is not critical, but at high speeds it becomes dangerous.

In spring, pebbles can even become dangerous, as they behave like balls on asphalt...

Pebbles are very effective, especially in the city center where there are a lot of pedestrians and cars move slowly. On large highways, pebbles do not work, so in Finland, on highways, they also spray the roadway with reagents.

The spring sun heated the pebbles and they fell under the ice...

And the stones are all under the ice...

In the spring, pebbles hardly work for a while...

Also, pebbles do not work in the spring when the ice melts. During the spring day, black stones, unlike white snow, quickly heat up and “fall” through the ice cover on the road. By nightfall it was freezing again, there were no more stones on the road, but pure ice. But this situation does not last long. At this time you just need to be a little more careful. But in winter you generally need to drive and walk more carefully. Therefore, in our opinion, Finnish stones are a very effective environmentally friendly solution to the problem of winter traffic safety for a small city.

In the spring, all sidewalks and roadways in Finland are covered with a layer of stones...

In Finland, almost all cities are very small. Are pebbles suitable for a big city? In our opinion, quite, especially in the city center, in pedestrian areas. How expensive is it to use this type of gravel? It seems to us that it is no more expensive than chemicals or sand. In both cases, a machine is needed to pour the reagent and scatter sand or stones. So the cost of the stone throwing procedure itself is the same. The stones may be more expensive, but they can be used many times. Special equipment collects stones very quickly. Several Finnish tractors can clean an entire street in a couple of hours. Watch our video transmission for yourself and see how simple it is: