A real paradigm shift is brewing in Bern, in Albert Rösti’s transport department. While cycling is on the rise in Switzerland, the infrastructures dedicated to it are multiplying, with a view to a network that covers the entire territory. But to date, if motorists put their hands in their wallets just like public transport users, cyclists are not directly taxed to pay for their cycle paths. This could change, announces Blick.ch. Faced with a “high need for investment”, the Federal Roads Office (Ofrou) is working on funding sources, now including the “causality principle”.
Clearly, he is studying the idea of a tax on bicycles. It could take the form of an annual tax, a sticker, or even a supplement to the purchase of the bicycle – nothing has yet been defined, assures Ofrou. Who will have to find a way to combine this possible new measure with the mention in Swiss law that “cycling must be strongly encouraged”, for reasons of health and ecology, recalls Blick.ch. The president of Pro Vélo and national councilor Matthias Aebischer (PS/BE) denounces a study that goes against the grain, “even more so after the no to the extension of the motorways”, and calls for it to be abandoned. His colleague Benjamin Giezendanner (UDC/AG), on the contrary, had already brought the question to Parliament, but the Federal Council replied that the administrative burden would be too high: “It is time to talk about it again”, believes- he. Similar projects recently failed in Lucerne and Basel-Landschaft, and another is underway in Zurich.
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