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Zurich, Switzerland

The city of Zurich is famous for its banks and its chocolate. It is also increasingly known for making a dramatic transition from a city reliant on private cars to one committed to public transit. Zurich has one of the highest levels of per capita transit ridership in the world. At 560 trips per year, Zurich’s population makes roughly twice the number of trips per capita than those of Europe’s largest cities, including London, Paris and Berlin. With 76 percent of work and recreation trips made by transit, it overshadows even America’s most transit-friendly city, New York, which boasts only 25 percent of trips by transit.

But it wasn’t always this way: Although the city had a tram system in place in the early 1970s, Zurich suffered a problem all too familiar to American cities today. Automobile ownership and congestion were increasing, while jobs and housing were moving out from the city center. The federal government put forth a proposal in 1973 to construct an underground network of trams and trains, as many other European Cities had done. With the removal of public transit lines on the streets, more available space could be handed over to the car.

Zurich’s splendid tram system fosters a vibrant public life throughout the city.

Public outcry, however, was immediate and unexpected. Although citizens rallied against the motion for a variety of reasons (fear of urban growth and gentrification among them), the result was a resounding defeat at the polls. Soon afterwards a newly formed citizens group, the People’s Initiative for the Promotion of Public Transportation, proposed renovating the ailing tram system—an idea which defied all the conventional wisdom in the urban planning profession at that time. The proposal quickly gained momentum among the auto-weary citizenry but was opposed by politicians, businesses, engineers and other experts. The initiative was placed on the ballot in March 1977, and approved.

Zurich’s planners estimated that it required five to ten lanes of car traffic to move the same number of people in one hour (8,000) as it does one tram. The introduction of hundreds of new tram cars to the transit system has allowed the city to save or reclaim valued public spaces that would have been given over to the automobile. Despite its initial opposition, Zurich’s government now makes continual improvements to the transit system because public officials realize how much it contributes to the livability of the city.

By emphasizing trams over autos in the city streets, Zurich has been able to create more public space for people.

Zurich’s bold move in embracing transit speaks to the power of the democratic process. The success of Zurich’s transit priority program bodes well for starting this dialogue between voters and their governments worldwide.

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