Thread by @pekkatahkola

🧵The father of #MeanwhileInOulu, Mauri Myllylä, 87. The first traffic engineer in Oulu. There's just so much we all owe to him especially regarding cycling. Talked with him last week over dinner about some of the historical important planning decisions they made back in 60's 1/

City of Oulu started growing rapidly in the late 50's and 60's. We needed a traffic engineer. I'm so happy they chose Mauri, who understood the importance of #walking & #cycling even during our strongest era of automobilization. He faced a lot and I do mean A LOT of criticism 2/

over his decisions and plans. I can't even imagine how bad it must have been. But he managed to stand his ground. First ever separate bike paths were built in Oulu in the 1960's, and he pushed through a 1971 masterplan for main cycling network that was also built. 3/

Interesting point now during winter times is of course the maintenance. It was never an option to not to maintain bike paths. Not even in the 60's. One important factors was that all bicycle infra needed to be wide enough so that regular size tractors could maintain it all. 4/

Including the underpasses. There was no nationwide guideline about sizing/height. So it was basically up to each planner if they cared or even understood that. Thus, elsewhere in 🇫🇮 we still have old narrow infra and too low underpasses that can not be effectively maintained. 5/

Even our 1960's underpasses, such as this one under a national highway, are high enough for even modern tractors. That being said, there are combinations of too big machines vs too low underpasses even in Oulu, unfortunately 6/

https://twitter.com/pekkatahkola/status/1598751310928543749

Interesting note is that Mauri also studied/visited the US for a longer period of time. And he was absolutely devastated by the automobilization. Perhaps in a way, the US actually helped #Oulu, by shocking him enough that he was even more assured to make it better here 🤷🏻‍♂️7/

There's so much more I could tell about what Mauri has achieved for our society. I cannot thank him enough. Without him, the whole #MeanwhileInOulu would probably not exist. Thousands of people benefit mentally and physically from his work every day. Thank you, Mauri ❤️
8/8

If you're interested more about his thoughts, he's also written a book:
Mauri Myllylä
Biking in Practice
Ideas and acts to promote walking and cycling
ISBN 978-952-99539-5-0