I spent my NYE in HKI, and the city had had a whole bunch of snow fall on it recently. Like any 600 000 inhabitant town (the capital region has a population of some 1,3 million), there’s a number of cars roaming the streets even if the powers-that-be seem to increasingly dislike the fact. Half of the street had the parking spots taken up by plowed-up snow, and parking on the other half is yet more expensive again.
As the tram service works reasonably well and there’s even a metro line, the matter of the fact is that you simply won’t need a car in central Helsinki – but if you arrive by car you’ll need to be able to put it somewhere. My parents still have two cars, and neither of those are currently anywhere near Helsinki. Me, I just shuffled mine the best way I could, to dodge paying an euro per hour for 12 hours just to keep the car put. Of course, there are parking permits for residents, but just a week or weekend every two-three months hasn’t made enough sense for me to get one for my parents’ flat’s vicinity.
But what about when the snow taking up the precious parking spots just has to go, before it has the good grace to melt by itself? Take a look at a couple of Helsinki shots from around the New Year.
The Corsa here had probably sat for a good two weeks, and while surrounding cars did their best to get out of the way of the Bobcats, Caterpillars and shovelmen clearing the streets, the Corsa just remained snowed in.
It’s not totally uncommon for 1) someone to break in while the car is under two feet of snow for weeks, or 2) a snowplow to punch off a mirror or two. Last winter, I think I even read about someone’s small car getting accidentally carted to a snow heap along with the removed street snow.
These two city cars belong to the Helsinki City Car Club, with the idea there’s a certain amount of small-to-midsize cars parked around town and as a member you can have a car at your disposal at your convenience, and can park to special reserved spots. Problems only arise when a car isn’t moved too often.
Not even BMW:s are considered too precious to stay put for awhile, let alone this good-looking E34 5-series.
I probably slipped on the ice taking a photo of this Mi16 405, and shook the photo. Sorry about that.
This Wrangler was shot where the FSO Pick-Up from a week ago was. Looks like it has no problem finding a spot. Me? I’d prefer a Dacia Duster of all things. And a Darwin badge wouldn’t be a bad thing either.
The other option is to get a six-speed manual Audi S8 on studded tires. This one used to belong to a friend of mine, and I happened upon it by coincidence.
This Bronco, on the other hand, had found a spot outside it liked and decided to stay there.
This Primera looked like an angry cat. The red-yellow line denotes the area where there can be snow falling or being dropped from the roof. Yeah, the city employs people to belt up and shovel snow and ice off the roofs, and they do their best to not drop any on people or cars. There’s always a spotter on the ground with a whistle in hand to warn possible sleepwalkers. Of course, it can be a problem when you’re not reachable to move your car; a dude I know was in London and had to pull numerous strings to have his Scirocco moved in good time.
No idea if this was snow-related, but it’s dedicated to that one longrooffan who does great duct tape write-ups.
What happened in the end? Well, by NYE the frozen weather turned itself around and it just plain rained on us. Shooting rockets in the drizzle, trying to keep upright on the watery ice while champagneated is another challenge in itself.
[Photos: Copyright 2012 Hooniverse/Antti Kautonen]
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