There is indeed excellent chocolate in Switzerland, also far too many SUVs. What’s that, sport-utility vehicles in one of the most sustainability-minded countries in the world, where gasoline costs as much as $4.50 a gallon?
Unfortunately true, as lumbering Jeep Cherokees (European-owned now) and Ford Explorers crowd the narrow Alpine paths.
You could argue that the Swiss need four-wheel-drive because of their snowy winters and high mountain passes, but any number of excellent small cars are for sale there with all-wheel-drive, traction control and other advanced features. The road system (which offers few motorways) is also extremely well maintained. It must be the swashbuckling SUV image, which won’t die no matter how many nails I attempt to drive into it.
But the Swiss transportation picture is otherwise unbelievably good. Alongside those big SUVs are fleets of tiny DaimlerChrysler Smart cars, which get 60 miles to the gallon, emit very small amounts of global warming gas from their 50-horsepower engines, and cost only $10,879. The Smart, brainchild of Switzerland’s Swatch company, would perhaps be a bit scary on the interstate, but it suits the Swiss just fine.
Local trams (which operate at six-minute intervals) crisscross all the major Swiss cities. The Swiss rail system is one of the most densely concentrated and efficient in the world. Arriving at the Zurich airport, I walked right downstairs and onto a train, which whisked me to the city center in 20 minutes.
With some companions on a Location: Switzerland sustainable business tour, I journeyed to an out-of-the-way town in the Alps. Using our Swiss Passes (good for just about any form of public transportation), we changed trains twice and never waited more than five minutes on a platform. The trains were fast, clean and quiet.
Seventy percent of Zurich’s residents use buses and streetcars regularly. The city removed 10,000 of its 60,000 parking spaces in 1991 and declared several residential areas "auto free." Street "blockades" are also going up to aid in the international art of "traffic calming."
Switzerland also has the largest car-sharing network in the world, set up in 1987. Since launch, Mobility CarSharing (which offers members the chance to share everything from a van to a convertible) has doubled in size every two years and was nationwide by 1998, when there were 20,000 members, and 900 cars in use at 600 locations. The system is quite high-tech, with drivers using electronic cards to access the cars 24 hours a day.
If you do drive a car in Switzerland, be careful to observe the 74-mile-per-hour speed limit on highways, because lawbreakers are subject to on-the-spot fines. Drunk driving can land you in prison.
One of the biggest transportation issues in Switzerland is the trucks that rumble through on their way to other European destinations. The Swiss would like to limit the traffic, and public sentiment swung sharply in that direction after 11 people were killed in a fiery 2001 collision between two trucks in the Gotthard Tunnel.
Switzerland seems expensive to visitors, but possibly not to residents because salaries are high. Executive secretaries make an average of $67,899. It’s not surprising that the World Economic Forum’s Environmental Sustainability Index places Switzerland at the top, ahead of France, the Netherlands, Ireland and the U.S. It’s a decidedly livable place that’s actually serious about meeting its global-warming commitments under the Kyoto Treaty. Our tour stopped at the energy-efficient headquarters of reinsurance firm Swiss Re, where workers enjoy subsidized organic fare in the cafeteria and free visits from masseurs. A fellow could get used to that.
