Box 10M Public transportation in Zurich

The city of Zurich with its 360 000 inhabitants is the centre of an agglomeration of about 1 million people. Since 1973, all traffic technical measures taken by the city have been aimed at controlling car use, and with good results.

Around 80 per cent of all displacements into and out of the inner city, and 50 per cent of the displacements within the municipality take place on public transport. The citizens of Zurich average 490 trips a year by public transport, compared with 320 for Amsterdam, 150 for Cologne and 131 for Manchester. Zurich has carefully planned its investments in transport infrastructure. Cost-benefit analysis has shown that speed-up programmes for trains and buses were 20 times more successful than the construction of an express motorway and four times better than improvement of the S-Bahn (underground). It was therefore decided to concentrate on developing the bus and tram system in Zurich.

Investment in the area of public transport includes the laying on of free bus and tram lanes, minimising the waiting times at traffic lights, promoting regularity and punctuality, and in addition extending the S-Bahn network. The city has now the highest rate of public transport use in Western Europe (500 trips per person per year). The result has been a stabilisation of city traffic since 1990, and a decline in car ownership since 1982 (Friends of the Earth, 1992, p 25). Noticeable is the high percentage of season-ticket holders among the travellers, a consequence of companies offering free or reduced tariffs to their employees. Also noticeable is the extremely good image enjoyed by public transport. Eighty-seven per cent of the population supports further promotion of public transport.

Parking policy is an important accompanying measure. There are strict norms for laying out parking facilities. The city of Zurich has drawn up standards to determine the number of new parking places allowed based on the quality of public transport at the given points and on the protection of the city's appearance. These standards comprise minimum and maximum requirements with regard to the number of parking places.

The minimum requirement is used to prevent the expected number of cars putting pressure on the other parking capacity. The maximum requirement is used to avoid generating excessive motor traffic in a given area. The canton of Zurich has drawn corresponding guidelines, including additional reducing factors based on the air quality and expected pollution, with respect to the air quality management plan of 1990.

Despite the measures taken, the number of private parking places has doubled in the last two decades. Formerly, there was more concentration on the minimum requirement, now it is more the maximum requirement. Furthermore, there has been a shift in the type of jobs to a larger share for services. The growth in the number of private parking places can ultimately be explained by the labour market. As a kind of fringe benefit, employers sometimes want to ensure a sufficient number of parking places. Around 85 per cent of the car commuters in Zurich have their own parking space. Thus, to reduce car traffic further it is the aim to try and push down this percentage especially, by raising effective parking taxes. Apart from this the focus will be on visitors to the shops and businesses. The supply of parking places for this category will be reduced.

In the late 1970s, a bicycle route network of 200 km was designed and adopted in 1984. To date, the share of the bicycle in the total amount of traffic is about 7 per cent .

The main objective of the traffic policy in Zurich is to guarantee the accessibility for employees and visitors in an attractive and inexpensive way with positive side-effects such as a reduced energy level, lower noise levels, less air pollution, more space for cyclists and pedestrians and a safer urban environment.The results of the transport policy in Zurich show that, contrary to the belief of some entrepreneurs, economy and ecology are indeed compatible.