We all voted in favour of the Cycle Route Act in March 2022. In October, FEDRO and SwitzerlandMobility announced the consequences of this at national level.
At the 2nd National MTB Symposium on 25 October 2023, Silvio Zala from FEDRO and Dave Spielmann, Bruno Hirschi and Dominik Hub from SwitzerlandMobility provided information on the direction being taken. The Federal Roads Office (FEDRO) is the federal government’s specialist agency for non-motorised traffic. SwitzerlandMobility supports FEDRO as the national specialist organisation for leisure cycling, including mountain biking, in the implementation of tasks relating to the Cycle Route Act. Two cycle path networks are planned for implementation, one for everyday traffic and one for leisure traffic, which includes mountain biking.
Since 2008, SwitzerlandMobility has built up a large network of routes at national, cantonal and regional level with the Mountain Bike Country. These routes are documented in detail on its website and in the app of the same name. With the new contribution agreement with FEDRO, SwitzerlandMobility has taken on many new challenges and tasks as the national specialist centre for mountain biking at the beginning of 2023. The existing mountain bike country is to be massively expanded.
In principle, an attractive and official cycle leisure network should provide guidance. The focus here is on the shared use of the existing path infrastructure, as an independent MTB infrastructure would be neither ecologically nor economically feasible. Unbundling should only be considered if there is high utilisation pressure in highly frequented areas.
A major focus in the further development of mountain bike country will be on local recreation. While the routes have so far mainly been located in tourist areas, SwitzerlandMobility lacks the “trails close to home” for the general population. In future, in addition to the routes, trails, paths, pistes and MTB facilities (pump tracks, skill centres, etc.) are to be included in Mountainbikeland and supplemented with variants, feeder routes and other connections. The MTB infrastructure should not be considered independently and in isolation, but must be networked. This should not only be done between the leisure and everyday cycle networks, but also with public transport, motorised private transport and other important connections.
The signposting will also be future-oriented. The existing, regulated and standardised signposting can be adapted, but should remain clearly separated from information such as trail name, difficulty levels, obstacles, etc. In terms of difficulty levels, the development could move from the current three levels to the five levels proposed by our “Planning & Realisation of MTB Infrastructure” expert commission in accordance with the ITRS.
The Cycle Route Act has already achieved a great deal at all levels and will continue to do so in the near future. We, too, are staying on the ball and actively helping to ensure that we can all enjoy an attractive and official cycle leisure network.
[Source: SwitzerlandMobility] All presentation slides and the videos of the presentations are public and can be viewed on the SwitzerlandMobility website in German and French. ASTRA: Federal Office for Non-motorised Traffic [ DE / FR / IT ] ITRS - International Trail Rating System