Watching a Cloud Grow While Walking

Reading Time: 5 minutes
Yesterday I went for a walk and during this walk I kept looking at the Jura. Above the Jura I could see a cumolonimbus cloud mushroom and grow upwards, before spreading out. This morning I read about a huge hail storm. I photographed that storm cell as it was growing. Yesterday I could see a few storm systems growing and I thought "maybe we'll have storms this evening." We didn't, but some of them did.

Foncine-Le-Haut had a serious storm. Up to 15 centimetres of hail fell. I expect that trees and more were damaged by that hail, and that we might see those traces if we hike around there. The hike I like near Foncine-Le-Haut and Foncine-Le-Bas follows an old train line where the tracks have been removed, so that a walking and hiking path exist. It is a place I plan to go back to one day. it would be a good place for a group hike.

Normally I like to walk from my home, without using the car. During the pandemic I could, with ease, because roads were quiet. With the return of cars walking along roads feels extremely dangerous. People drive by me at full speed. It's terrifying. It is the reason for which I hike in the mountains, with groups, or run.

Cycling is a wonderful sport, but women, and men, drive too fast and too close, especially to people like me, but also to people walking with prams.

One of the special things about yesterday's hike is that I walked by properties that once had one house, a garden, and trees. Over a number of years now I have noticed that buildings from the 60s, once the owners die, or move away, are demolished, and where an individual house once rested two or three sugar cube "villas" are built. The grass is replaced by tarmac. The trees are gone, and the sense of being in a village is gone.

As I have said for a while now, every time I see people speak about the de-urbanisation of cities like Barcelona, Paris, and others, is that I see the urbanisation of villages. Houses are demolished, to be replaced by apartment block type "homes". The character of the village with houses, and gardens is being destroyed, and the village is becoming urban.

It's not just the village that is being urbanised. We see rivers of cars that flow without ever stopping. The road from Nyon to St Cergue used to be straight. With time, as traffic increased, as trains of cars (A never ending stream of cars) made their way down, so it became impossible to leave Gingins and Trelex. They placed roundabouts, and then expanded them and yet the stream still continued without stopping.

Vaud, and Nyon, among other places like to speak of mobilité douce, and encourage people to leave cars at home. Crans has no pavements. Eysins only has pavements if you want to go to Nyon, not if you want to go to Signy, Arney-Sur-Nyon and Crans.

Founex is a village. If you want to walk though, the roads are narrow, so buses, and cars, mount the pavement. The same is true in Eysins and many other villages. They might lower the speed limit, but that doesn't encourage people to respect pedestrians and cyclists.

For the loop I did yesterday you walk along roads where cars feel they can go at 80 kilometres per hour, despite there being no pavement, or even a dirt path by the side of the road. Two Porsches and two scooters didn't bother to give me any safety space on narrow lanes. They don't slow down. They don't give the required one and a half metres of space, even when there is no oncoming traffic.

Yesterday when I went to Portes De Nyon I saw two women, waiting at a pedestrian crossing, and the column of cars didn't stop for them. I did stop, to force the truck coming opposite to stop too. There is a societal ill, by which people commute to and from work, rather than take public transport. These people are so angry about having to commute to and from work, that they lose their humanity.

As a pedestrian, and as a cyclist I see it. As someone who commuted by car I recognise that I too had this social illness. The illness of angry commuting. That's why I eventually replaced the car with buses, or a walk to the train station and then the train, before another walk. I would walk to the Palais Wilson, and towards Place Des Nations for another contract. When you don't have free parking, driving becomes prohibitively expensive.

By taking the train I had to walk two kilometres to the train, and two kilometres from the train, but I also walked between the train station and offices. The result is that I easiy got 10,000 steps. It also ensured that I preserved my health.

There is all this talk about making towns and cities pedestrian friendly. For me the problem isn't in towns and cities. It's in villages and towns. If I want to go to Nyon I have to walk by busy roads where cars speed and mount the pavement right in front of me when I'm walking. There are renovation works in a building so cars and delivery vans park on the pavement, forcing pedestrians onto the road.

If you cycle there is no safe cycling route. You're on the road. If you're an e-scooter too, you're on the road. In my eyes walking between Eysins and Nyon is not pleasant and walking from Arnex to Nyon, and Signy to Nyon, and Crans to Nyon, and Gingins to Nyon, is not safe.

If I pushed even further, the hiking stage that goes from St Cergue to Nyon, once it hits Cheserex, Tranchepied and La Rippe is not safe. The road is narrow, so cars can barely pass each other. Hikers are forced to walk on the road. If cars slowed down, and went to the other side, to pass at a safe distance, at a safe speed it would be fine.

Since pandemic lockdowns ended these cars rarely slow down anymore. Rationally people will ask "Buy why walk by the roads anyway?" and the answer is simple. If I get into the car, to drive half an hour to walk for an hour then I am contributing to the traffic problem. I am polluting with the car. I am increasing the need for parking spaces, and I'm squandering the opportunity to enjoy nice walks by where I live.

I would go further. Cycling infrastructure, and walking infrastructure, is designed for flâneurs, rather than hikers. It's designed for people who want to walk at a low pace, for half an hour or an hour at most. Mobilité douce is designed for people who want to remain within their town or city. It forgets about the hiker, and the road cyclist, and even the cycling commuter to some degree.

For me, mobilité douce shouldn't be about making towns and cities friendly for cyclists. For me mobilité douce is about connecting Gland, and Nyon, and Gingins, and Trelex, and Arnex-Sur-Nyon with gravel paths for walking and cycling, that enables people to walk, with a minimum of exposure to cars. in St Moritz you have cycling routes that are isolated from cars. The Voie Verte that goes from Divonne to Nyon is a good route. If the farm roads, from Lausanne to Geneva were dedicated to cyclists, hikers, and agricultural vehicles, and cars were banned, then this part of Switzerland could be a euphoric place to cycle.

The cruelest of ironies is that it wouldn't require a huge investment. Clear sign posts would be enough. The Arc Lémanique could be a fantastic place for hiking, and cycling. Throw in gravel paths by busy roads for walking, and cycling and cars wouldn't be bothered by cyclists and hikers, and hikers and cyclists would be safe from cars.

For me mobilité douce means making walking and cycling so safe that we only use cars for shopping, and trips where a train would take two to three times longer than the car. I would like for cars to stop being our default transport method.