Transportation

Roads
Helsinki has several ring roads: Ring I, Ring II, and Ring III. From central city to east and west, there are Itäväylä and Länsiväylä. From the central city to north, there are several routes. There is a proposal to build a Stockholm-like tunnel under central Helsinki to hide cars from streets. Central Helsinki has popular underground parking facilities.

Helsinki has some 390 cars per 1000 inhabitants.This is less than in cities of similar density, for instance, Brussels' 483 per 1000 and Stockholm's 401, and Oslo's 413.

Rail transport and buses
Public transportation is generally a hotly debated subject in the local politics of Helsinki. In Helsinki metropolitan area, public transportation is managed under Helsinki Region Transport, the metropolitan area transportation authority. The diverse public transport system consists of trams, commuter rail, the subway, bus lines and two ferry lines.

Today, Helsinki is the only city in Finland to have trams or subway trains. There used to be two other cities in Finland with trams: Turku and Viipuri (Vyborg, now in Russia), but both have since abandoned trams. The Helsinki Metro, opened in the year 1982, is the only subway system in Finland. In 2006, the construction of the long debated extension of the subway system west into Espoo was approved, and serious debate about an eastern extension into Sipoo has taken place.

Aviation
Air traffic is handled primarily from the international Helsinki-Vantaa Airport, located approximately 19 kilometres (12 mi) north of Helsinki's downtown area, in the neighbouring city of Vantaa. Helsinki's second airport, Malmi Airport, is mainly used for general and private aviation. Copterline has provided fast (18 min.) helicopter flights to Tallinn, but discontinued the regular service in December 2008 on grounds of unprofitability.

Sea transport
Ferry connections to Tallinn and Stockholm are serviced by various companies. Finnlines passenger-freight ferries to Gdynia, Poland and Travemünde, Germany are also available, while Tallink began service to Rostock, Germany in 2007. St. Peter Line offers passenger ferry service to Saint Petersburg several times a week.