Winter Maintenance for Walking and Cycling — Harju County
Estonia’s winter-maintenance rules look complete on paper — this study explains why footpaths and cycle lanes still turn to ice in practice, and finds the real problem is coordination, not regulation.
Every winter, poorly cleared footpaths and cycle paths push people back into cars, even where the legal standards for maintenance already exist. HOL wanted to understand why the rules weren’t translating into usable winter infrastructure — and what could actually fix it.
Commissioned under BATS (Baltic region Active Travel Solutions), an Interreg Baltic Sea Region Programme project co-funded by the EU as part of its Smart Green Mobility priority, running from municipal interviews in autumn 2025 through a final English-language report delivered in May 2026.
Combined a legal review of national and municipal winter-maintenance standards across 16 Harju municipalities, structured interviews with municipal officials and national transport bodies, an international 41-question benchmarking survey answered by BATS partner cities (Klaipėda, Gothenburg, Porvoo), and a gamified stakeholder workshop mapping the maintenance ecosystem’s bottlenecks. Two detailed street-level case studies in Tallinn mapped exactly where overlapping maintenance jurisdictions cause visible gaps in service.
Delivered in stages — a preliminary report and benchmarking deck in October 2025, a substantial Estonian interim report in December 2025, and a final, translated English report and international “Winter Condition Cards” benchmarking deck in May 2026.
Winter Condition Cards – international benchmarking
Winter Maintenance for Walking and Cycling – final report
Talihooldus jalgsi ja rattaga liikumiseks – final report in Estonian
