Well-working and safe everyday connections for everyone as the goal
The goal of the National Transport System Plan, also known as the Transport 12 plan, is a transport system that operates in an environmentally, socially and financially sustainable manner and guarantees sufficient accessibility for people as well as trade and industry. Traficom is responsible for the impact assessment in the preparation of the Transport 12 plan and produces an overall strategic situational picture of the transport system and its development needs in cooperation with the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency and other stakeholders.
Traficom monitors the satisfaction of citizens with the transport system and travel chains every other year through surveys. The survey produces information on the satisfaction of citizens with the different aspects of the transport system and the service level of travel chains for authorities and stakeholders in the transport sector. Satisfaction with the transport conditions refer to e.g. experiences with the functioning and safety of trips. In 2023, citizens were fairly happy with these, and the average of the assessments was 3.72. A slight decreasing trend in satisfaction can be noticed especially in smaller urban areas and municipalities with less than 20,000 residents, where the level of satisfaction is also lower compared to the large urban areas.
Digital connections ensure that people are able to work remotely as well as use services provided by authorities and companies. In 2023 we launched the Bittimittari.fi service, which allows users to measure the speed of their broadband service. The goal is to make connections available on land, at sea, in the air and in space. Promoting the availability of services on a global scale is important from the perspective of social sustainability. In 2023, Traficom actively influenced the definition of 6G technology in international cooperation under the UN (IMT-2030). The starting point for Finland has been the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and Traficom has influenced the work on defining 6G so that they would be taken into consideration from the start.
One of the principles is reducing the footprint so that the energy consumption of 6G would be significantly lower than in the previous generations of technology. It is also important to take sustainable development into account in the international frequency planning. Adding new frequencies to the base stations that already exist reduces the environmental impact compared to the construction of new base stations.
New accessibility requirements for transport and communications emphasise equality
Accessibility means that all people should have equal opportunities to participate and operate in society. In terms of Traficom, this means promoting accessibility in passenger transport services, audiovisual content services as well as the electronic products and services in the information society, among other things.
In the summer of 2025, the European Accessibility Act of the EU will bring our Agency new monitoring duties. In 2023, we prepared for our new duties by means such as mapping the obligations of operators, the rights of citizens and the duties of supervisory authorities. We initiated planning for advice and communications as well as the work of the national monitoring group for accessibility standards. The new accessibility requirements promote the equality of people with disabilities in particular, but everyone will benefit from the accessibility and improved usability of products and services.
Traficom participated in drawing up the transport accessibility vision led by the Ministry of Transport and Communications. The idea that safe and independent mobility must be possible for everyone is at the heart of the vision. We also studied accessibility in the requirements on buses. The goal was to harmonise equipment requirements in bus transport procured by the authorities and identify best practices with regard to accessibility. The study was presented to stakeholders, and feedback on it was received from transport clients, operators and representatives of the users. The new situational pictures of accessibility of taxi transport were also completed in the summer.
We promoted the accessibility of audiovisual content services with our studies of the quality of SDH subtitles on the Nelonen television channel and by requiring Sanoma Media Finland Oy to correct the deficiencies in the subtitling service. In August 2023, we found that the subtitling service on Nelonen met the obligations of the law concerning sufficient clarity and understandability.