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June 30, 2006
A Town Without Cars
by Brian Yanity, insurgent49

     Imagine what cities and towns would be like with no automobiles.

     One can find a prime example at the top of a steep valley in the German-speaking part of the Swiss canton of Valois. The town of Zermatt is located at an altitude of 1620 m (5315 ft) at the base of the towering peak of the Matterhorn, just north of the Italian border. The famed ski resort town has a year-round population of about 5,000, but this number is much higher than that during the peak of the winter and summer tourist seasons, as there is lodging room for up to 15,000 visitors.

     A staging point for many hikes and climbs into the surrounding mountains, Zermatt has a legendary mountaineering history and has produced many ski champions. A number of efficient cable cars and other ski lifts carry skiers in the winter and hikers in the summer, including the highest cable car in Europe, which goes up to an elevation of 3820 m (12,570 ft.) on the Swiss-Italian border.

     Most visitors reach Zermatt by electric trains, which depart for Zermatt an hour's ride down the valley from connections on the main Swiss rail network. These are special 'cog railway' (also called a rack-and-pinion track system) trains designed to climb up steep inclines. Above the town, a spectacular cog railway line runs up to the summit of the Gornergrat at 3089m (10134 ft), and serves as a 'ski-lift' during the winter.

     To prevent air pollution that could ruin the town's spectacular views of the surrounding mountains, the entire town is a car-free zone.

     A few gasoline or diesel powered motor vehicles are permitted with permission from the local police, generally granted only to a small number of permanent residents. There are parking facilities for private vehicles at the southern outskirts of Zermatt, but only for those who work or live in the town. Anyone else who wants to drive to Zermatt must take a taxi from the nearby town of Täsch, a few miles further down the valley. In March 2005, Zermatt's residents voted to approve a public road from Täsch to the parking lots on the southern end of Zermatt, but the town itself will remain car free.

     Zermatt is not completely free of internal-combustion engines, but the only fossil-fueled vehicles I saw were a garbage truck, a tractor and a couple of construction vehicles. However, such encounters with noisy and polluting petroleum-fueled engines are few and far between. There is also a helicopter landing pad on the outskirts of town, but I did not see any helicopters using it during the three days that I was in Zermatt.

     Zermatt's restrictions on private automobiles are as old as the automobile age itself. In a way, the town seems frozen back in the pre-automotive days, but at same time it also represents the future. For all the claims on how the car gives people so much personal freedom, in this town the lack of private automobiles dominating the streets allows people greater choice in how they move around.

     Within Zermatt, there are three main ways transportation is powered: by electricity, horses, and by human beings themselves.

     Zermatt's first electric vehicle was driven in 1947, and the all-electric fleet has expanded ever since. Today, there are various all-electric passenger vehicles operating within Zermatt, from tiny electric shuttles provided by hotels to carry visitors from the main train station, or the taxi transfer point at the parking lot just outside town. Four major Zermatt families operate electric taxi service. Two routes of larger electric buses serve the major hotel areas, the base stations of the various cable cars and ski-lifts, and the surrounding rural areas.

     For freight, there are many electric mini-truck vans, resembling industrial-sized golf carts. A few horse-drawn carriages are operated by hotels and for pleasure-rides. But the most dominant modes of transport are those that are human-powered: bicycles, skateboards, foot scooters, and of course your own two feet.

     One common argument against the environmental advantages of electric vehicles is that polluting sources produces the electricity used to charge their batteries. This is not so in Zermatt, as local hydroelectric power plants around the town provide all of town's electrical needs, including the power needed for charging vehicle batteries, as well as powering the all electric trains, cable cars, and ski lifts. The hydroelectric facilities have very low environmental impact (being on glacier-fed streams without a fish population due to downstream waterfalls in the valley below) and, of course, they cause no air pollution.

     It is so refreshing to be in the center of a busy town, but with the only sounds that can be heard being people talking and walking, the rush of the small river nearby, birds singing, the occasional honk of one of the electric vehicles or the trotting and bells of horse carriages, and maybe the wind blowing through the trees.



     The town is crammed with tourists, but somehow it does not feel overcrowded. Children on scooters and bicycles can play in the middle of Zermatt`s most busy street while their parents have no fears for their safety. In how many busy American tourist towns with a population of 5,000 have you seen (or heard) this?

     One does not miss private automobiles at all being in a town like this. After all, cities and towns exist so that people can live richer lives and take advantage of services and opportunities that could not exist in a purely rural life. So it is perfectly fitting for a town to be built around human beings, and not noisy, polluting machines that waste energy. 

     It is also apparent in Zermatt how much space is wasted by private automobiles for wide streets and parking. Given the space constraints in a steep mountain valley, the town was laid out with a relatively high density, and most buildings are between four and six stories tall. This density makes distances between destinations short, making the town extremely walkable, even in the depths of winter.

     Despite the space constraints, there still are numerous small-scale community garden plots were many residents grow vegetables. Food is expensive here, as the only major problem with Zermatt is that it caters to the wealthy, like most ski resorts. Despite being such a small island of sustainability in a world of profligate use of fossil fuels, the town still stands as an inspiration.

     Something tells me that Switzerland, and Zermatt in particular, will do alright if the 'peak oil' global energy crisis is as bad as many say it will be. That is, the country has built up a transportation infrastructure relatively independent of oil, which in Switzerland´s case is 100% imported.

     Cities and towns offer opportunities for the most energy-efficient way of life possible, but only if they learn from the mistakes of the past. For example, two to three decades ago, the major cities of China used to be famous for the 'quietest rush hour in the world' with swarms of bicycle commuters. Today, China's economic boom has made sales of private cars skyrocket, and Chinese cities are now as traffic-clogged and smoggy as any in the world.

     Anyone who thinks that life in the modern world must revolve around private automobiles should visit Zermatt, Switzerland.









Brian Yanity is a graduate student at UAA, activist and freelance writer. He resides in an undisclosed location in Southcentral Alaska, and can be reached at byanity@insurgent49.com.
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in-sur-gent (in sur'jent), n. 1. a member of a group which revolts against the policies of its leadership.