Rivers of Cars and Soft Mobility

Reading Time: 4 minutes
The biggest improvement you can make to walking and cycling mobility is to avoid having cyclists, and pedestrians blocked by car traffic. This can include traffic lights but also busy roads where it is impossible to cross. If you're on a walk, or a bike ride, and you get blocked by cars, then the temptation is not to walk that route, or walk a shorter distance.

Millions are being spent to make roads more cyclist and pedestrian friendly but they're making changes that look good on paper but do nothing for cyclists and pedestrians. Between a village and a town they spent two months to add a pavement on one side, and a cycling/pedestrian path on the other. It should have taken a week. It took ages, and the net gain for pedestrians and cyclists is cosmetic, rather than useful.

For me, as a person who has walked and cycled seven hundred and twenty hours or more, I would ensure flow between villages. I would ensure that there are no bottle necks. I would ensure that if I want to walk between local villages I can do so without walking in wet grass, and without being blocked by a river of cars.

During the COVID honeymoon COVID 2020: The Year of the Quiet Ocean oceans were quiet, but so were roads. This meant that we could walk from anywhere, to anywhere without the danger of cars. This showed that if we removed the threat of cars, we would encourage people to walk more, rather than less.

The infrastructure that took two months to build doesn't improve cycling or walking, because it hasn't prioritised cycling and walking. It has thrown bikes off of the road, to allow cars to go faster, rather than to make cycling more of a pleasure.

Mobilité Douce for Flanneurs

The biggest handicap in how Mobilité Douce is designed at the moment, is that it's designed with a focus on cars getting people from village A to B, or Town C, but they forget that we could walk, and cycle between village A and B, but also to town C. Building infrastructure, or altering pre-existing routes doesn't increase walkability and cycling ease.

Years ago I was listening to a podcast where someone said "I'm an expert because I take the train from Geneva to Lausanne and back, regularly." When I heard this I thought "And that's the issue, they take a common route, so they're blind to the real need.

Examples of Blocking Roads

The road between Porte De Nyon and Petite Prairie has heavy traffic, so you can cross, but at the pedestrian crossings. Luckily cars have to stop when you appear. If you walk between Petit Eysins and Asse, you need to cross a very busy road, where it is dangerous to pass. If you walk between Signy and Borex along the small road that goes by the recycling centre cars are fast and careless towards cyclists and pedestrians.

If you go from Chavannes Centre to Bogis Bossey there is a traffic light that takes three or four cycles before changing for cyclists. At this point it makes more sense to take the pedestrian crossing, and then resume cycling.

When you walk between most villages there are no provisions for people on foot, or at least none that maximise convenience. If you exit Eysins you have to walk along the road. You can see where a walking path should be because in multiple locations there is a dirt path along the road, where multitudes of people walk in the grass, killing it, and creating a natural path.

Where the gravière is now, used to be good for pedestrian walks, both along the river, but along the concrete surfaced road. Due to much heavier traffic it is now to dangerous to walk along that path.

Contrast With France

There is a stark contrast, when you cross to France, because they take old train lines, and they make them accessible by bike, for running, and walking. They establish voie vertes. These are rare in Switzerland, and they exist, paradoxically, within cities, rather than outside, to connect towns and villages.

Things are improving

I noticed that there are plans to increase bus frequency for the 815 TPN bus as well as with buses from France, to encourage people to rely on their cars less. I also saw that France and Switzerland have agreements to keep, or improve the transport offer between one side of the Léman and the other. The changes that I want to see are in the process of coming to fruition.

And Finally - When Traffic is reduced

Walking and cycling will be more pleasant when traffic density goes down, rather than when more infrastructure is built. If roads are quiet, then cycling is pleasant. If people replace car journeys with walks, bike rides, and bus journeys then roads will be quieter. When roads are quieter cycling is pleasant, and driving is pleasant. It's when roads are saturated with cars that you need cycling infrastructure.

That's one thing you learn, riding with groups. On group rides the hive mind of the cycling community identifies and favours routes that are quiet and appealing for cyclists to use.

I want cycling routes that are away from main roads. I like to use secondary farm roads where cars are banned. Instead of spending billions on superficial road changes, I would like to see roads where cars are banned, like they were in the past. When agriicultural roads were metalled they encouraged normal cars.

A few of my preferred walks are along agricultural roads that were empty of cars during the pandemic, where I felt safe to walk. This change would cost very little to bring about.