ETE: On SWISS Busses...

Lauren Hilliard • Saturday August 5, 2006

Isn’t this a lovely place to wait for the bus? Kind of hard to beat standing in front of a vineyard with a castle looking down on you! Every day, I walked down the hill from the house I’m staying in at either :09 or :39, and catch the #814 to the Uster train station EXACTLY on time. I then walk to the platform to catch the S5 train to Zurich which comes EXACTLY 3 minutes later, then walk out of the Zurich Hauptbahnhoft (main station) and can catch a tram to get me anywhere in the city. The bus is very pleasant to ride — with businessmen in suits, to mothers pushing strollers, to college students with their dogs.

This article is part of the Exploring Transportation in Europe series.

 

Category: Public Transit •• Region: Switzerland •• Comments

ETE: On SWISS Bicycling

Lauren Hilliard • Friday August 4, 2006

A “Wanderweg” is a marked path for pedestrians and cyclists. I took the bus down to the lake to go swimming and was amused to see so many kids on board in their swimsuits and parents with inflatable tubes!

There were definitely more people biking and walking to the lake that driving….and it was so quiet since only non-motorized boats are allowed on the water.

One thing I noticed about the bicycle routes….there are a lot of ‘wanderwegs’ in Zurich that border the Lake and are so wide that there is a designated lane for the bicycles and the rest is for pedestrians. It seems to work well as the bikes don’t have to ride next to the strange traffic flow and stop at intersections — yet they do not interfere with pedestrians.

This article is part of the Exploring Transportation in Europe series.

 

Category: Bicycling •• Region: Switzerland •• Comments

ETE: On SWISS Marketing...

Lauren Hilliard • Friday July 28, 2006

Slow Up

I went to the grocery store the other day to purchase WAY too many bars of Swiss chocolate and the paper bag available for bagging had people bicycling and skating on it. After asking my new friend for a translation, she told me that there was a list of different Swiss cities down the side with dates next to them. The dates were to inform people of when each city’s “car-less” day was for the summer months. I don’t think it’s completely ‘car-free’ but these are days when there are big awareness events related to bicycling, skating, and walking.

Perhaps Sacramento could have a “car-less” day, since a “car-free” day would never actually happen.

Coolest paper bag I’ve ever picked up!

This article is part of the Exploring Transportation in Europe series.

 

Category: Culture •• Region: Switzerland •• Comments

ETE: On SWISS Smart Growth...

Lauren Hilliard • Friday July 28, 2006

I find it very amusing that Americans consider the idea of having housing on top of retail a ‘new’ form of development. That’s all they have here! It’s quite funny seeing century-old buildings containing Starbucks and McDonald’s – with apartments on top nonetheless.

Saturday night I stayed in a 5-story loft apartment in the heart of Zurich…while similar in idea to the 800 J Lofts that I’ll be moving into when I return to Sacramento, it was built in the 1300’s! You can see it in the picture here — it’s the building just to the left of the (really loud!) church bell towers, right on the Lake of Zurich (with great walking paths!). I was staying in the corner loft on the left-hand-side of the building. Absolutely incredible place!

This article is part of the Exploring Transportation in Europe series.

 

Category: Smart Growth •• Region: Switzerland •• Comments

ETE: On SWISS Walkability...

Lauren Hilliard • Thursday July 27, 2006

There’s lovely walking paths everywhere here…this is one of our neighborhood paths separated by hedges. I spent hours walking around the Lake of Zurich last night on a wonderful path next to the water. Zurich is currently in the process of closing down many of their city centre roads for new trams, and expanding their walking paths.

There’s a different mentality here about letting your kids walk 500 yards. Lynne was expressing her disbelief that American moms drive their kids 500 yards to their school bus stops instead of walking them or letting them go themselves.

Children also are required by national law to come home for a 12-1:45pm lunch break — the main meal in Switzerland. Perhaps between the walking to school or bus stop, and access to healthier food at lunchtime, explains why Swiss children aren’t known for high obesity rates.

This article is part of the Exploring Transportation in Europe series.

 

Category: Culture •• Region: Switzerland •• Comments

ETE: On SWISS Culture...

Lauren Hilliard • Thursday July 27, 2006

My friend was commenting at the train station that the Swiss (at least in the cities) tend to stay to themselves and aren’t particularly that friendly on transit. I found this funny, since I’ve heard comments that the American mentality of personal independence is partly why so many of us drive alone instead of getting on public transit. Perhaps it doesn’t have to do with culture?

This article is part of the Exploring Transportation in Europe series.

 

Category: Culture •• Region: Switzerland •• Comments

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