20 Minutes. The German plan to charge foreign residents to use their motorways was judged discriminatory by EU officials because the charges would only be imposed on foreigners. This project “still contains elements that are contrary to european rights and violate fundamental principals of treaties, in particular discrimination based on nationality” voiced the European Parliament, which […]
Swiss road victims down overall but higher for cyclists
20 Minutes. In 2016, the number dying on Swiss roads dropped 15% compared with 2015. 216 people died, 37 less than the year before (-15%). While there were fewer car, motorcycle and pedestrian accident victims, the number of seriously injured cyclists climbed. Since records began in 1940, only 1945, when 211 died, has seen fewer […]
Green politician wants to ban all petrol and diesel cars from Swiss roads by 2025
20 Minutes. National Councillor Balthasar Glättli tabled a motion that would require all cars in Switzerland to be electric by 2025. He sees this as a way to meet emission levels set out in the Paris Agreement on climate change which aims to limit the global temperature rise to 2 degrees by 2030. His plan […]
Geneva Motor Show wishes women a beautiful and sweet day
Today is international women’s day and the theme is Be Bold For Change. As the Geneva motor show prepares to open, we noticed they had posted something on their Facebook page to mark the day: “Women are honored today! We wish them a beautiful and sweet day!” The car industry has traditionally been male dominated. […]
Swiss fact: 78,000 drivers lost their licences in Switzerland in 2016
In 2016, 78,043 drivers had their licences taken away in Switzerland, 2.7% fewer than the year before. The main reasons for licence confiscation were: speeding (37%), alcohol (19%) and inattention (11%). 65% of those who had their licence taken away lost it for 3 months or less, while 30% lost theirs for an unlimited period […]
Geneva has Switzerland’s worst traffic, ranking ahead of New York
The satellite navigation company TomTom, has collected over 14 trillion measurements from over 450 million GPS devices around the world, crunched the data, and worked out which cities have the worst traffic congestion. The latest ranking is based on 2016 data. Mexico city had the worst traffic congestion. The average time lost to traffic there […]
Swiss voters to decide whether to spend big on roads
On 12 February 2017, the Swiss electorate will vote on constitutional changes to spend large sums on roads. The Swiss government says the country has a good transport system, which has been pushed to its limits due to increasing mobility. On many national roads and in the cities, traffic congestion is the norm, it says. Aim of the proposal […]
Geneva driver faces parking fine of more than 1,800 francs
Tribune de Genève. Last Thursday, the driver of a car parked near the intersection of place Bel-Air and rue de la Corraterie received a nasty surprise. The driver, who works in a nearby bank, left her car parked across tram tracks for 40 minutes, according to Tribune de Genève. This single mistake had a knock-on […]
Speeder gets 6 months in a Swiss prison
20 Minutes. A German motorcyclist was sentenced to 19 months in prison by a court in Luzern, a canton in Switzerland. Six of the 19 month sentence must be served behind bars. The motorcyclist was flashed going 150 km/h in an 80 km/h zone between Gisikon and Inwil in the canton of Luzern. The defendant had already […]
Swiss MPs want cyclists to systematically lose driving licenses for rule breaking
20 Minutes. Hans-Peter Portman, a parliamentarian from Zurich, wants cyclists who break the road rules to suffer the same penalties as drivers. Last week, he, along with 72 other members, signed a parliamentary motion to have the sanctions stiffened for errant cyclists. According to Blick, the most common transgressions are crossing white lines, running red lights, weaving […]
