Transportation in Switzerland – 2002

June 2002

The ‘Smart’ Car

Driving from the airport to my aunt’s house I noticed that most of the cars were much smaller than what I was used to from Canada.

There was one particular car that caught my attention. It looked so cute, but was also really tiny. It is called a “Smart” and is a 2 seater city car. The girlfriend of one of my cousin’s has one and said that it was a lot of fun to drive in the city, but not so much on the Autobahn. Even though, it could go 100 km/h quite easily. It is only 2.5 meters long and 2 would fit into an average parking spot.

I got my first real good look at the car, when I saw the blue one in the Tessin near my mom’s house. These cars seem to be quite popular and come in many colors. Towards the end of my trip I came close up to another one and this time I could take close up pictures.

May 5, 2004 Update
MSN Canada just had an article that the Smart Car is coming to Canada.

Rinspeed Roadster

Both my cousins like cars. The have a number of them. The one I was most impressed with is this one. My younger cousin came with it to pick up my daughter to go swimming in Lake Zurich. It is called Rinspeed Roadster. It is car that is produced in Switzerland.

Trikes

When I first saw this motorcycle-trike, I had to look twice. I thought it looked really strange as I had never seen one in Canada. So, once I got back to Canada, I went on a search to find some information on the Internet. So here is the link to the page from Germany.

Bus System in Locarno

We found the name of the bus stops funny. It turns out that it is the abreviation for ‘Ferrovie autolinee regionali ticinesi’. English translation of Fart: ‘Tessin regional railroads and buses’

Gas Prices in Switzerland in 2002

The price for gasoline is for 1 liter or 1/4 of an US gallon in Swiss Francs. One Franc was just about equal to on Canadian Dollar and a Canadian Dollar is worth around 65 cents US.

Bicycle Storage

When I went to school in Switzerland I had to take the train. To get to the train station I took my bike. I could store my bike like this there. Now over the years I have trying to explain this without much success as most people just could not imagine something like this. So now when I saw this in my mom’s appartment bulding I just had to take a picture to show. This way the bicycles take up the least amount of space and are earily accessible.

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