This is the story of the development of an alternative approach to transportation planning and how it has transformed the city. We start the story in the 1960s when the government plans for moving trams from the surface to underground was rejected in a referendum. In 1973, a similar plan was rejected. As part of this fight the activists developed a 'People's Plan for Prioritizing Transit' which still serves as the conceptual underpinning of transportation planning in Zurich to this day.
3. Vehicle Miles Traveled
or
The World After the Model T
Ref for VMT ---- http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/policyinformation/statistics/2007/vmt421.cfm
1908
The Model T
1930s
The Great
Depression
1940-45
World War II
1956
Highway Bill
1973
First Oil Crisis
1979
Second Oil
Crisis
1949
Housing Act
1992
ISTEA
Post 2005 ???
4. Before-World War 2
After-World War 2
Ref for VMT ---- http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/policyinformation/statistics/2007/vmt421.cfm
5. Did the increase in traffic change our cities?
Or did we have to change our cities and towns
to allow for this extraordinary increase in traffic?
6. Often we focus on how the increase in traffic changed our cities
But it is also important to understand that the
massive increase in traffic in the after-war period
would have been impossible
without an equally massive restructuring of our cities
7. After the Model T
Transportation and Urban Living
In Zürich, Switzerland
8. 250 cars per 1000 people
25 cars per 1000 people
Motor Vehicles per 1000
Pre-World War 2
Zürich had an extremely low level of motorization
9. Motor Vehicles per 1000
From 1945 to 1980
Zürich motorized at an astounding rate
3X more than 1945
50X more than 1945
10. Motor Vehicles per 1000
Post 1980
Zürich’s increase in motorization stalled dramatically
19. Source: Die Disziplinierung Der Stadt Moderner Stadtebau in Zürich 1900 bis 1940 by Daniel Kurz
Zürich streets were modified to better accommodate cars
22. Mit Autobahnen Die Städte Retten?
(With Highways the Cities are Saved?)
1954 A federal commission organized to address traffic in Switzerland
According to George Kammann in ‘Mit Autobahnen Die Stadte Retten?’
“This commission quickly reverted to a single-minded focus on the building of a
national system of Autobahns to match that of Italy, Germany and the United States. “
One major idea was the building of freeways through the center of all major Swiss
cities, including Zürich
Autobahn over the River Sihl in Zurich
23. Direct Democracy in Switzerland
At first these plans seemed to have the support of the cities.
But as planning progressed during the late 50s and early 60s, opposition to freeways
in the cities grew substantially.
This sounds exactly like the scenario playing out in the USA at the time.
The key difference – the Swiss tradition of direct democracy, which required popular
vote on any significant project or change to public policy.
24. 1962, No to Subways for Zürich
1962 voters in both the City and the wider Canton of Zürich, rejected plans for the
subway system. In the city the margin was a resounding 61 to 39 %.
Concurrent with the reject of the subway, there was also a great deal of public
criticism about the general direction of transportation planning in the city.
These plans included the proposals for the three major expressways that were
designed to intersect in the form of a giant Y in the center of the city. These
highway plans were defeated in a later referendum.
25. 1973, Again with the Subways?
In 1973 the city was once again back before the voters with a new plan – this time
for a joint subway (U-Bahn) and commuter rail (S-Bahn) system.
26. 1973, Once again Nein to the Subways
Once again this system was designed as a plan to partly replace the city’s system of
surface trams. And once again the voters shocked the politicians by voting down
the plan – this time by a 57 % to 43 % margin.
27. Reasons the Subway was Rejected
1. Subways would facilitate excessive growth of the
city or in the language of the era - the
Manhattanization of Zürich.
2. Subways would improve longer distance travel
(especially for people coming from the suburban
towns) but would disadvantage people traveling
shorter distances in the city.
3. Replacing the surface trams with a subterranean
system would free up road space for cars and thus
attract more cars to the center city.
28. 1970s
The Peoples Initiative for the Promotion of Transit
The rejection of the U-Bahn/S-Bahn plan encouraged the anti-subway activists to
develop their own transportation proposal in opposition to the government’s plan.
This “People’s Initiative for the Promotion of Public Transit” represented an
important shift and was based on the realization that it was hard to argue against
something with nothing.
The People’s Initiative was important in getting people to understand that the
opponents of the subway plan were not against transit, but just against the specific
type of transit proposed, and the consequential intensification of the city.
29. The People’s Six Points Initiative
The People’s Initiative was largely based on the idea of giving transit
priority over automobile traffic. It drew on the experience of the Swiss
cities of Bern and Basel.
The Zürich plan was based on 6 points:
1)Give absolute priority to buses and trams,
2)Create exclusive transit lanes and traffic signal priority,
3)Increase frequency of transit service,
4)Expand the transit system,
5)Improve interchanges between lines,
6)Improve the stop areas.
32. What Makes Transit Useful
(from Jarrett Walker’s “Human Transit”)
1. It takes me where I want to go
2. It takes me when I want to go
3. It is a good use of my time
4. It is a good use of my money
5. It respects me in the level of safety, comfort, and amenity it
provides
6. I can trust it
7. It give me freedom to change my plans
51. Parking Policy
Max in city center 0.08 spaces/1000 sq. ft
(0.50 spaces/1000 sq. ft in secondary
centers)
The Prime Tower complex, which includes
the tallest building in Switzerland, at 36
stories, and over 700,000 sq. feet of space,
opened in 2011.
It has only 250 parking spaces.
54. The official approach to transportation
in Zürich today is a direct descendant of the 1970s People’s Initiative
It is the opposite of the approach taught in most schools
Some city officials refer to it as
Supply Driven Transportation Planning
55. One Reason for Supply Driven Planning
Cars require 10 to 30 times more space than other modes
56. Motor Vehicles per 1000
The result of supply driven transportation in Zürich?
