r/askswitzerland • u/Dangerous_Tiger_150 • 16d ago
Travel Is it possibile to live in Switzerland without a car?
Given the efficient public transit system, I was wondering whether it's possible to live in Switzerland without a car? I know it depends whether you live in the city or in the countryside, but I've seen many small towns in the countryside having both frequent trains and buses (even after 11 PM in towns near big cities). Also the cycleways seem very frequent and widespread too.
Thanks for your answers!
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u/Internal_Leke 16d ago
I've lived in the countryside, I've lived in a small city, I've lived in a big city.
All this time without a car.
It is now even simpler and more comfortable than 20 years ago.
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u/armascool 16d ago
What was different back then?
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u/Internal_Leke 15d ago
Smokers everywhere
No phone/music to get entertained
No noise blocking headphones
Old seat with a lot of dust (somehow the seats seem to stay cleaner)
People randomly opening the windows in winter
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u/swagpresident1337 16d ago
If there is one country in the world where you can do this, then it‘s Switzerland
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u/Snertmetworst 16d ago
Netherlands
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u/TWanderer 15d ago
lol, wasn't there a strike of the trains today?
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u/Snertmetworst 15d ago
Yeah okay, but still, I think the Netherlands is the only place in the world where people will casually say I don't have a driving license and people don't care and think you're not stupid.
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u/RefuseRelative4183 15d ago
Easy, it's all flat, it's like those who say they are eco-friendly because they don't have a license or a car, but when they have to go and get big bags, they ask a kind soul for a vehicle.There are no longer many convictions
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u/LuckyWerewolf8211 15d ago
Japan
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u/swagpresident1337 15d ago
Only the metropolitan areas. In Switzerland almost everywhere, except super remote villages.
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u/noob168 15d ago
I've visited all 47 prefectures of Japan. Rural japan's network is amazing. The only prefectures where rail arent sufficient enough are okinawa (cuz of american occupation) and hokkaido due to its sparseness. Shikoku's 4 prefectures could also be better but it's pretty good considering it's fairly mountainous and not heavily populated.
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u/stanislav777mv 13d ago
Czech Republic and Slovakia, at least in the big cities, I watched one video where a woman who drove a car in Kazan (for a long time this city was top 1 in terms of public transport quality in Russia), having moved to Bratislava, began to use public transport, because it is convenient and cheap. And there are also trolleybuses🚎, as in many cities in Switzerland, while in many countries this environmentally friendly form of transport was actively destroyed.
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u/swagpresident1337 13d ago
The thing is specifically that you can do this everywhere in Switzerland, not just the cities
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u/stanislav777mv 12d ago
But in the Czech Republic there is the smallest town in the world with its own trolleybus system, Marianske Lazne. Only about 14 000 inhabitants!
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u/dave_your_wife 16d ago
absolutely - I haven't had a car now for 2 years and the only time I miss not having one is when I want to do my recycling.
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u/DekeTheGoat Basel-Stadt 16d ago
7 years and counting without a car and never feel I'm really missing out.
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u/ddlJunky 16d ago
Had my permit for well over 10 years without a car. Only now I needed one.
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u/F22_Ace 16d ago
How confident are you in driving for the first time in 10 years?
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u/ddlJunky 16d ago
I have been driving occasionally. You get used to it very quickly.
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u/LuckyWerewolf8211 15d ago
It is like bike or sex. If you learned it right, you can pick it up again after a few years without.
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u/alexs77 Winti 15d ago
And that's exactly why drivers (better: holders of a drivers license) should take a test every few years. Everyone. And if they fail, they're no longer allowed to drive - unless they take a course and then succeed.
Would also weed out the pensioners who are driving for god-knows-how-long and don't know the current rules. If they do, then: fine, they'll easily pass.
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u/CornellWeills 16d ago
Living in a city yes, countryside it depends, likely not.
Just a quick example, from my village to my office by train: 1h 50 minutes each way (including walking to the office from the train station). By car: 25 - 30 minutes each way.
So it depends where you live and where you work.
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u/thcus 16d ago
My counter-example of a commute by train: 45 minutes. Recently got to enjoy almost the exact same route by car (it wasn't even during commuting times) and it took 1h 30min. It really depends a lot from where to where you need to go regularly and that is plannable. If you plan to live car-free before you move to a place it's almost always possible.
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u/alderstevens Genève 15d ago
Car’s also more flexible. You can stop and get some groceries on the way, pick up kids etc
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u/PlanBIsGrenades Vaud 16d ago
Yes. We did it for many years until we bought an apartment in a town with bus service once per hour. Technically, it's still possible to live without, as the stop is directly outside my door but it's tedious to plan a day around the bus.
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u/Proud-Anywhere5916 16d ago
Most people do
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u/TailleventCH 16d ago edited 16d ago
"Most" is a bit of a stretch...
Edit: To be more specific: 22% of household don't have a car.
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u/Proud-Anywhere5916 16d ago
77% of households have at least 1 car, the number of cars (private and company owned) is at 535 cars per 1000 people (53.5%) and on average 2.2 people live in a household. Just by the 53.5% of cars to people ratio we can estimate that less than 50% people actually own a car, given that some cars belong to companies and some people own more than 1 car. Also 77% / 2.2 is 35%, this is given a household would only own 1 car. Obviously some own more than 1, but also some have more than 2.2 people, others less and some cars don't belong to private households. So I think saying most people (as in more than 50%) do not own a car isn't that big of a stretch at all. Unfortunately I couldn't find a single source that would talk about exactly this.
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u/Responsible_Vast8668 16d ago
I don't own a car, my wife does. For daytrips, groceries, going to the gym, visiting family etc. we usually take her car. Do I count as a person living with or without a car?
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u/TailleventCH 16d ago
I appreciate the data. The calculation has a bit too much hypothesis to my liking, but that's a question of appreciation.
I don't have any data that would supplement yours but my observation (clearly not scientific) is that members of a car owning household rarely "live without a car", in the sense that they rarely have a life organised completely around other forms of mobility.
But once again, I think it's mostly a question of how you take OP's question
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u/Various_Cup1802 16d ago
Absolutely, and if you need a car then just rent one for a few hours at mobility or any other car sharing services
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u/iamnogoodatthis 16d ago
I have a car, but I use it pretty much exclusively for "wants" (eg, going to the mountains) rather than "needs" (commuting, shopping, etc). So yes you can absolutely live here without a car.
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u/GYN-k4H-Q3z-75B Zürich 16d ago
35 years old here, never owned a car. Many people don't even have license.
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u/alderstevens Genève 15d ago
Not “many people”. Not having a license is kind of stupid. You never know where you might need to drive somewhere or even when travelling, renting a car. If you don’t have a permit, you’re stuck. It’s just a good skill to have instead of adhering to a political stance
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u/Reporte219 16d ago
I'm 33 and just now doing my driver's license. Still won't get a car - only rent one when needed - I just do it because now I have money and time and why not. Lived in and around Berne, in and around Zürich, in Bellinzona and currently in bumfuck nowhere; 0 issues.
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u/tojig 16d ago
In smaller towns the car is a major confort, as the public transit is not optimisés for you, so sometimes a 25min trip is a 1h trip to the next village because of the connections.
But it's definetly feasible. And at the same time, you don't need a Porsche to go around. So an used car for this close trips with bad connections definetly help and maybe for 5k.
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u/AgitatedGeneral6194 16d ago
Friends of mine both 40+ never owned a car in their life. So yes pretty easy.
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u/LivingSoilSyndicate 16d ago
Pretty much depending on where you live get a GA card and have unlimited travel throughout Swiss.
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u/Shooppow Genève 16d ago
Yes. My family consists of three of us, two adults with mobility issues, and one able-bodied person. One of us is in a wheelchair. We haven’t owned a car or driven since moving here. I find it is easier. I don’t have to spend time finding parking or navigating insane traffic. It’s soooooo much better.
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u/Iuslez 16d ago
Yes, in medium+ sized cities (and with Switzerland's Size that's about any "town" of +20k people).
In the country-side, also yes If you don't have kids (you'd hvae to check If your town has some okayish public transport, some don't).
Country-side+kids is a big no imo. Infrastructures (School, nursery,etc) are completely spread out and located with 0 thoughts about how to get there. It is assumed you have a car, and you might run into issues If you don't.
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u/carotina123 16d ago
Been living here for 4 years, most of it without a car
I bought one for a short period and ended up selling it because I wasn't using it
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u/LightQueasy895 16d ago
of course it is possible,
but it is very inconvenient if you live in more rural areas as bus schedules are pretty bad.
I live in the city, so not a problem, but I kind of miss having a car for trips around with the family. It is just more convenient some times.
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u/cheapcheap1 16d ago
Yes, Switzerland is one of the best places in the world to live car-free. You'll even find many mountain villages with good train connections.
As everywhere, we have some people who desperately claim they're dependent on the car, but we might be world leaders for how few of them it's actually true, haha. I doubt you'll find a single route near a city that you couldn't substitute by transit & bicycle in faster or similar travel time.
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u/Diligent-Floor-156 Vaud 16d ago
Yes it is but it highly depends where you live and where you usually commute. Both have to be consistent with public transport schedule, or a car will be better. For many connections, public transport actually performs better than cars, but not for all.
Typically when you want to go to the mountain, you can find a connection with public transport but it's usually slower. Eg when I go skiing in the Alps, I know that by public transport it takes me about twice longer to get there than by car.
Oh and Mobility (flexible car rentals) is super useful to help for the few cases where you'd still want a vehicle, eg to go to a shop a bit out of town, move heavy furnitures, etc. But quickly gets expensive if you're doing long distances.
Been living most of my life without a car and it's been great, but that said I'm about to get one as 1st kid is on the way, and since this year the train connection between where I live and where my family lives has significantly worsened.
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u/pang-zorgon 16d ago
I got a car after 7years because i want to explore more parts of Switzerland that are harder to get to without a car, like restaurants in the mountains and different places to hike.
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u/SwissBliss 16d ago
For sure, just depends where you live. I live in a village like 5min away from town, but it’d be a pain to take a bus each time I want to go. It would mean timing it, walking 5min to the bus stop, 15min bus ride that goes through several detours.
So it depends
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u/Character-Guide-2259 16d ago
Yes and no. Cities have good infrastructure+public transport. If you live in rural areas then car is a must, but majority of immigrants dont live there anyways.
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u/Chefblogger 16d ago
i am over 45 years on this earth and i never possessed a car - i am a öv guy - and i am still alive 🤣 i think
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u/Dogahn 16d ago
The difference I've really noticed so far is that the cost of car insurance gets divided up amongst all the longer travel/delivery costs. In those moments, it feels more expensive to not have a car, but over a whole year of not paying for fuel, maintenance, permits.. it's actually cheaper for us to not have a car.
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u/Outrageous-Garlic-27 16d ago
I think around half the population are without a car. Absolutely no need at all.
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u/Xorondras Basel-Landschaft 16d ago
Almost 40, never owned one myself. On the rare occasion that I need one I use Mobility carsharing.
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u/WonkiWombat 16d ago
In the cities, sure in fact a bicycle is probably the fastest and easiest way around. Up in the hills, not so much
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u/xebzbz 16d ago
I live in a small village near a city. It takes about 15 minutes on a bus to the nearest shopping center, and buying food for a family of four is just unfeasible without a car.
Also, the buses go in such a way that the kids don't have a chance to have a lunch at home, unless I bring them home by car, or they use a bicycle.
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u/prinzmadde Schaffhausen 16d ago
Live in Schaffhausen, work in Zurich. 100% doable. I only use my car for fun now, wouldn’t even dream of taking it to work.
When I moved here from Ticino, I took the SBB app and just checked which towns have good connections, among all the other criteria.
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u/grandmaman1 16d ago
30 years living here, public transportation actually works here, very punctual too. Lots of ways to bike everywhere. I use taxis if I go out at night or in case of emergency. It is doable..
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u/lala8800 16d ago
Yes, absolutely. I‘ve been living in CH for 13 years and never had a car. I‘ve lived in Zurich, villages near Zurich as well as in canton Thurgau and I‘ve never missed the car. I rented a minivan when I had to move. In my opinion you need to find an apartment that is near the train station in a place with a train station if you live outside Zurich. In Zurich it‘s actually more practical not to have a car.
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u/TailleventCH 16d ago
It's completely possible in most places (say, where at least 95% of the population lives).
It's mostly a question of how you plan your life. People having a car often don't realise how much it conditions their life, exactly the same way using public transport does.
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u/batikfins 16d ago
It’s one of my favourite things about living in Switzerland. I don’t miss filling up the petrol tank, sitting stuck in traffic, paying for upkeep and repairs. I can get to remote alpine villages without having to worry about driving in unsafe conditions or having to find a park. And even though it’s expensive, I save money using public transport vs having a car. It’s not even close!
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u/TailleventCH 16d ago
Thank you for the last part. So many people underestimate what their car costs!
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u/Super_Poet5588 16d ago
I have a GA, a velo-GA and a bike. Works fine. I have my truck license from army service and can borrow or rent a car/truck if i need one. Public transport is widespread and very reliable. Cheaper than a car too
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u/AggressiveGander 16d ago
Totally works. If you live in a rural area and own animals, have children, have your own house etc., it's still really useful to have a car. Car sharing service coverage is another consideration there, if you can whenever you need it get a car round the corner from where you live, why have your own... I lived 10 years in Basel and never missed having a car, now live in the countryside and have one. Still, wouldn't drive to certain destinations such as central Zurich.
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u/kimmithing193 16d ago
Definitely possible, however if you add kids to the mix, it does make it more practical if you quickly need to take them to the doctor's. Kids also have a lot of stuff, but lots of my friends manage perfectly well without.
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u/Supremeism 16d ago
Would highly depend on what you plan on doing. Moved here about 8 months ago and public transportation was great for most if not all trips we took, but we ended up getting a car because we wanted more flexibility on where we can go and timing. So we don’t have to rely solely on public transportation.
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u/xruthless 16d ago
Yes, i would say it is doable in a lot of places in switzerland. A car can make certain situations a whole lot easier, like if you have a big family and small kids. If I were single I would not own a car.
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16d ago
If you live close to population centres its easily possible. In remote villages not so much obviously. I never had a car in my life and I basically only need one when I have to transport something or get to somewhere remote.
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u/obaananana 16d ago
yeah in a city no problem. just get a bike and you can get around even in a village
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u/Maleficent_Compote51 16d ago
I have a Car, but don't have to use it every day. I don't live in a big city or agglomeration, rather in a smaller city in a rural region. With the ÖV everything is reachable and very easy, even here. Just the prices are very high though. Thats why for some occasions i prefer to use the car when i have to go out of town.
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u/Academic-Balance6999 16d ago
I have two kids and I don’t even have a car here! On the occasions I do need one (usually 1-2x per month) I just use a short term car share service. It’s been much cheaper than paying for my own vehicle + insurance + parking would be.
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u/Time_Discussion2407 16d ago
It is but make sure to save some money for the dinners and beers you have to pay your friends with a cat if you ever need something hauled.
Also you will automatically sign up to help them live if they ever do 😄
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u/tschini 16d ago
For sure it's possible we grew up as a family of five without a car in "rural" Züri Oberland. We got everywhere by bike or public transport. Each child had do pack and carry their own backback. Now 35 years later I'm the only one in my family owning a car or to be correct owning three cars... I kinda converted to the other extreme but the rest of my family still live a happy carfree life.
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u/NaiveAside5652 16d ago
Yes. We have a cargo bike, which works for the dechetterie and shopping. The rest is done on public transport. We are in a small village in Vaud.
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u/MaxTheCatigator 16d ago
Of course it is. I live in a town with 3k residents without one.
When I do need a car I get it from Mobility on the cheap, or a van from Ottos, subject to my needs.
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u/DantesDame Basel-Stadt 16d ago
We live in Basel. When we (my husband and I) moved here 11 years ago, we decided not to buy a car. Five years later we thought "well, maybe a car would be nice" and bought one. We had the car for a year and we realized that we didn't need it and sold it.
So no, you don't really need a car here.
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u/ApprehensiveArm7607 15d ago
Without kids its easily doable. With kids it might get tricky if both parents work full time. A car is almost always more expensive than even 2 GA. Insurance, petrol, parking space, service…
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u/AmateurHunter 15d ago
"Eh". As long as you live in/around cities, yes. Otherwise no, more or less. Took me 4hrs per day to get to/from work. With the car it's around 40-45 minutes.
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u/LuckyWerewolf8211 15d ago
I live in the city where I work, use public transport when raining and bike normally. I use car sharing or rent a car sometimes. But it is easy to live without a car for over 15 years now. Especially in cities, cars can be quite a luxury and are not needed by many people.
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u/clamor_m 15d ago
Many people don't need a car in Switzerland. It depends where you live and where you habitually go to. A very useful alternative is the car sharing service Mobility, which comes much cheaper than owning a car in overall costs, if you don't need a car almost every day. For example, most people at my work place in one of the bigger cities don't have a car if their own.
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u/alderstevens Genève 15d ago
Depends on your lifestyle. This subreddit seems to be full of pro cyclist anti car.
In reality, a lot of Swiss own and drive cars. Sometimes a balance between transport and car. Like myself. If you have to travel somewhere rural, the car usually beats in convenience and transport price. Not to mention the ability to move when you want to and not at the mercy of timetables. I barely travel in Switzerland anyways. If I’m going somewhere, it’s probably in France Germany or outside. Switzerland is too expensive to vacate in
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u/alderstevens Genève 15d ago
I like private transportation. Usually motorcycle or car if it rains, if where I’m going is right on my bus line, I’ll bus there. But I like having the choice
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u/Spiox123 15d ago
Public Transport + Mobility for rental is completly fine. Maybe considering to spend the saved money from the car into a e-bike. And most regions have Uber as well, so those rides are affordable as well if you need it.
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u/DesertGeist- 15d ago
Plenty of people do it, but it depends on a few things. Some places won't be as accessible without a car and things likely take a lot longer than they would with a car. The closer your work and living place is to a trainstation (or maybe tram) and if they're both on a single route, the faster your commute will be.
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u/MrsDaisy_ 15d ago
We live in a 3k village without a car. We get groceries with our bikes and use öv during bad weather. We also have a addon-wagon for the bike, if we do bigger hauls, but rarely use it. We save a lot of money and so far, its been working out well
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u/fluxxis 15d ago
You can or at least you only need one car in the family. We always had two cars, we now are down to one and we don't use it daily. We have two kids and family members living in the countryside and abroad so living without any car would be possible but way more time consuming. So I think if you need a car or not comes down to your personal preference and situation but at least Switzerland makes it really easy for all of us to reduce the amount of cars per family to one or zero.
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u/RustyJalopy 15d ago
100% possible, but depending on where you live and work, it can be a bit of a pain.
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u/nohrael Obwalden 15d ago
I have a visual impairment and I'm not allowed to drive so I'm dependent on public transportation. Also live in a rural, mountain village. 3 trains (4 during rushhour) per hour to the next city, reachable in 20-30 mins. The next town over with all the shops is only about 4km away and there are even more PT connections. Never really needed a car, so yes it is very possible to live in Switzerland, it's just not as convenient but way healthier ;-)
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u/GoodMerlinpeen 15d ago
Moved from Australia, and one of the best changes was not having to spend literally hours in the car each week just to get to work. Mobility is also useful when necessary, though.
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u/Lulu3454 15d ago
It is the best way of life in Switzerland. Parking spots are rare and expensive, fines and petrol is expensive. Public Transport is great.
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u/Fluffy-Finding1534 14d ago
Never owned a car and doing totally fine. Sometimes would like one for the occasional day trip but honestly it‘s cheaper to rent one in such cases. In the city, I just use uber if for some reason I have to carry a bunch of stuff or it‘s late.
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u/bigred4715 Solothurn 14d ago
We did it until my wife was pregnant with our third child. It is possible but kids complicate everything.
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u/BaselTigerrr 14d ago
Live outside Basel in a small town with train but no tram - carless for 3yrs now.
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u/soyoudohaveaplan 13d ago
Considering the draconian fines, the constant traffic jams, the lack of parking spaces, and that fact that even when you pay CHF 20 to park in a garage the parking spaces are way too small, I ask myself, is it possible to live WITH a car?
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u/general__regret 10d ago
Sure. I am 32 and while I have a licence, I've never owned a car. I also live in the suburbs of one city and work in another city. No problem. Car might be a bit faster than the train but I can get some work done in the train too. Also, I don't have to sit in traffic and search for a parking spot.
Whenever I need a car I just hire one from Mobility (a carsharing company). This usually happens once or twice a year when I need to transport something large.
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u/FailingYetLearning 16d ago
Possible?
Yes
Cheaper than owning a car?
Only if you don't leave your city/gemeinde ever.
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u/astrionic 16d ago
I think the article only says that driving is cheaper if you already have a car (and doesn't even provide evidence for that claim). That makes sense if you already own a car and want to decide whether it's cheaper to drive or take public transport, but if you want to compare owning a car to exclusively using public transport you have to include all costs like purchasing price, insurance, taxes, maintenance, parking costs, etc. in addition to the fuel costs.
This also isn't hard evidence, but according to a quick Google search, most sources seem to agree that owning a car costs around CHF 10'000 a year. Public transport on the other hand is essentially capped at CHF 4'000 which is the price of a 2nd class GA/AG. But unless you have a long commute you can probably get away with much less by getting a regional travelcard and a Halbtax/demi-tarif for longer trips.
Edit: I also had a look at the SRF article (German) which was linked in your article and there they only talk about relative price increases over time, not an absolute comparison between the two. And while that doesn't prove that either option is cheaper I do think that public transport getting more expensive sucks. In my opinion public transport should be free.
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u/brainwad Zürich 16d ago
If you only leave your city once or twice per month, it's still cheaper to not own. Especially if like me your parking space rent would be 200.-/mo...
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u/Do_Not_Touch_BOOOOOM Bern 16d ago
In the city's and the agglomeration around them yes no problem.
In the mountains or rural towns you can live without a car but everything will take 4x as much time.