Artists Make DIY Bike Lane Along Helsinki Thoroughfare

Hämeentie is the longest street in Helsinki, Finland, and one of the city's main thoroughfares. It has four lanes of traffic, but no space whatsoever for cyclists. There's no bike lane between the buses and the sidewalk.

To create their own, the Finnish collective Länsiväylä poured paint along one section of the street and then invited a group of cyclists to ride through it at midnight, leaving a visible trace of where bikes would ride if there were space, and creating a colorful new boundary.

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Law-and-order types, worry not: The paint they used washes away with water. Unfortunately, that means that Hämeentie won't really have a permanent new bike lane. At least not yet: The huge turnout might make city planners take notice.

You can see more pictures of the event on Flickr.