On your bike!
Well, not quite but it was an easy pun. It’s just my take on cycling in Switzerland and I might throw in a quick comparison with the Netherlands.
No need for a car?
Let me start by giving you some context to where I live. The bus stop is two or three minutes away (depending on the direction), the buses run every 7/8 minutes during peak times, every 15 minutes most of the day and every 30 minutes very early and very late in the day. The first bus is at 5.20, the last one at 23.54 (that’s 11.54 PM). In addition to that I have a regional train that takes me to the train station in Aarau. Takes about the same time as the bus, because I have to walk 8 minutes to get there. From Aarau (this is where the regional train and the bus will take me) I can be at Lake Geneva or Lake Constance within a good two hours. I have worked in and commuted to Basel, Bern, Lucerne, and Zurich without ever moving. All by train. We are a country of commuters.
I could technically ride my bike to the station as well. It would probably take me about 15 minutes (including getting the bike out of the basement and parking it at the station), but quite frankly with buses running this frequently and reliably, I don’t usually bother.
There are obviously people who commute by car too. Where I live I don’t need a car and I have never worked anywhere where commuting by car would have been more convenient. I think I first realized just how much of our local traffic was commuter traffic during the lockdown in 2020. It was so quiet and there were no traffic announcements on the radio at all.
What’s on the rise here is car sharing. As if where I live wasn’t convenient enough, I have three cars from two different car sharing providers right outside my front door. One is an electric car that you can just book through an app. Very convenient, and I was able to test drive it when they first introduced it. Nice little car. The other two are from a company where you need to be a member. So, if I ever needed a car, I could just book one and that’s that.
Wasn’t I going to talk about bikes?
Well yes, I was. In Switzerland it’s pretty important that you know how to ride a bike. This will of course depend on where you live, but bear with me. In primary school you might go on little outings by bike and you will have to pass a bike riding test at around age 10 – theory and practice. We take this very seriously. When I was young, my middle school was about 3 km (2 mi) away and we would all ride our bikes to get there. Later on in high school (10 km/6 mi) I would either ride the bike to the train station or just ride it to school. It was all downhill on the way there. Going home was a bit more of a drag.
So, we do ride our bikes from an early age. How about commuting by bike? Difficult to say. You do see quite a few bikes heading for the train station in the mornings and the bike parking there is pretty busy most days. Also, people who live close enough to work might bike there. However, you won’t see those never-ending streams of cyclists all over our cities that you see in the Netherlands. We have some catching up to do there. I would say for us bikes are more of a mode of transport and in the Netherlands, they feel like a way of life. Dutch friends please correct me if I’m wrong in the comments.
Now, when I go into town (Aarau) the bus takes me right to where all the shops are. If I went by bike, I would park it across the street from the bus stop outside the pedestrian area and just walk into town. Aarau is not very big of course; things are different in bigger cities like Zurich. I’ve never actually taken my bike into Zurich to ride it there. Looks a bit dangerous to me.
I can easily walk to the supermarket too or ride my bike. But again, the bus stops right outside the entrance. Seriously, public transport is making me lazy! Growing up I rode me bike a lot more because there were hardly any buses and no train station in my town. It’s all a matter of convenience. If I only had one bus an hour, I would consider doing my grocery shopping by bike. As things stand, I’m kind of too lazy to do that. Plus, I love my little shopping trolley.
Hilly or flat – does it make a difference?
Dutch people will often be told that everybody bikes there because it’s flat. Well, there might be some truth to that, but it’s certainly not the main reason. Have you seen their infrastructure? Just look at the traffic circles, the traffic lights, the space the cyclists are given, the bike parking at the station – cycling is clearly more than just a flat country perk. This is a lifestyle!
It’s a myth that you can get people to cycle more without also giving them the infrastructure. Cycling should not be dangerous! As long as bike routes are not a priority in city planning, you won’t get people on their bikes. It just won’t happen. But did you see the transformations of some of the streets in Paris? Yes, please! We need more of that.
Back to the question I asked. Switzerland is hilly if not mountainous and we still see a lot of cycling going on. I would argue though that because of the hills we cycle more and longer distances in our spare time as we might need to shower when we get to work having crossed a hill or two. While we have some catching up to do when it comes to inner city cycling, we do really well in terms of bike routes that cross the entire country. I love them. Routes 3, 5 and 8 pass through Aarau.
These are some of the main routes. Where there are no routes, that’s where the mountains are. Although some of them do take you across mountain passes. So, let me rephrase that – where there are no bike routes there are also no roads. Also not quite accurate of course, but you know what I mean. And there’s no such thing as a truly flat route in Switzerland unless you’re riding along the shores of a lake.
Take away
Whether people bike or not is a matter of the infrastructure provided. To misquote Field of Dreams – build it and they will come. This is not the responsibility of the would-be cyclists, it’s that of the city planners. For me the problem is that the public transport here is just too convenient and reliable to get my bum on my bike for everyday errands. This is not a complaint!
And I would say that the Netherlands and Switzerland are both countries of cyclists – just not quite in the same way.
What a beautiful place to call home! Always thought it might be my favorite and now confirmed! Photos are so very lush and green; the mountains so very grand. But back to topic at hand! Biking and walking! How very different from my experience in the USA. Well, most of it. We seem to adore concrete and loops of Highway everywhere with a massive interstate system that seems always to be in repair. Could have to do more with transport of goods since we are so very large; there are trains in need of infrastructure repair, but seems the bulk of goods travel by CO2 emitting diesel 18 wheelers. I am not familiar or aware of goods moving on rivers but they seem to be all dammed up for the power grid and suffering greatly in recent years from unpredictable weather, some relief of late. May I just say I think it is foolish to waste physical energy in gymnasiums to be “fit” after driving your own CO2 emitting SUV bigger by the year to same and return home feeling as if you’ve accomplished something worthwhile. Why not exercise as a way of life and not as a means of fitness? There are many fans of jogging in suburban neighborhoods but again for no purpose other than exercise. Urban planning has apparently been an afterthought rather than forethought in areas with which I am familiar.
I have had a rather unique experience living in what could be considered if not a 15 minute city than a 15 minute neighborhood in Patriots Pointe, Mt. Pleasant, near Charleston, SC. I lived by necessity without a personal vehicle in about 1995 for three years and adapted to the situation very well I think. My home base was my apartment on the second level of a large group, Harbor Pointe, near the Cooper River. I was able to walk to and from work every day in safety as there was a police station quite close. Strip malls provided for all my needs including groceries (backpack);
dress shop, large movie theater complex, veterinarian via transport with my red radio frequent Flyer wagon with crate for two cats; business supply store for many unusual items; a luggage carrier on wheels with handle for shopping larger items; toy stores; chiropractor; art supply & framing business; restaurants for special occasions; shops too numerous to name; essentially everything I needed! And a tourist attraction of ships from various wars. It was in fact idyllic walking among the large oaks with moss hanging everywhere. Although I acquired a bicycle in hopes of moving faster, I was disappointed to learn that the bicycle of my youth on which I could do all manner of tricks had been replaced with an updated hand braking system such that every time I tried to brake, using the peddles reflexively, I hopelessly broke the chain. There are bikes and then there are not improvements in my thinking! A very happy time in my life, absent automobiles, trains or planes! Enjoyed your piece very much; relatable even in the USA in a special place and time.