[Closed] Riding on footpaths in Switzerland – illegal or not?

Don't do it, you will get bummed with Toblerone and if its cold the triangle edges will hurt.  If its warm you will be fine.

Yep, different cantons do have their own rules.

For example, the Graubunden has no restrictions but enforces a trail tolerance attitude  https://www.davos.ch/en/summer/activities/bike/trail-tolerance/

Others, Bern for example, think otherwise  https://www.pinkbike.com/news/Swiss-canton-of-Bern-proposes-banning-mountain-biking-2012.html

Research & not being a dick on the trails is my advice.

The Cantons can & do change their mind  they can be idiosyncratic about things! A case of trail user conflict with the wrong person could queer the pitch for MTB's without any problem..

The person to ask is Alpinum on the Bearbones forums - he's Swiss and does quite a bit of serious riding.

Can't help with the Switzerland issue.

But vacation in Austria: seems that there are more and more "no mountain bike" signs are popping up. Was a bit frustrating. Lots of private land - and appears like the owners have to tolerate the footpaths / can't close those down. But they don't have to tolerate mountain biking?

Research & not being a dick on the trails is my advice.

Not being a dick is no problem, but I can't find any information on the Valais canton 🙁

We rode down everything we could find in Zermatt a few years back & got zero problems being polite to walkers.
Funiculars even had bike racks in them.

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Thanks Snaps - am also trying to join the bearbones forum to ask on there.

@Ewan - from memory it's just one of the admins ticking a box once they see your email. There's quite a few of us on BB and here, often with the same username.

This site might help with specific trails?

http://www.vttrack.fr/?zoom=9&lat=46.49365&lon=8.07769&layers=Google%20Physical%7CSentiers%7CGPSies%7C

@Ewan. The Valais canton changed the rules a couple of years ago to allow VTT riding on footpaths, though I think there was an exception made to the paths that running alongside the aquaducts that criss-cross the hills over there, so they're probably still not permitted. Information is pretty hard to come by, and the rules in Switzerland have a habit of changing, but last info I've been able to see is that.

There is a big "advice" board on the border twixt France and Switzerland on the Col du Balme (I'm going to guess you'll head through that way from Chamonix, the descent to Trient is a belter) which has out of date rules and claims what's blatantly water erosion is the fault of bikes. There's been attempts to have it taken down over the years but it keeps re-appearing.

Mrlebowski has the best advice there, it's very, very rare I meet any disapproval whilst out on the trails in Haute Savoie or Valais, far more likely to get good natured cheering on and questions about your sanity (though warming up the toblerone first is also pretty good advice...)

Hi, swiss resident of 11yrs, also not clear to me!

As stated above, in Graubunden (Davos, Flims etc) it is openly promoted and they advocate tolerance and respect for both walkers and bikers. Trails are so long, that meeting walkers is a nice moment to stop, chat and let the lactic acid subside a bit.

Bern do seem to be a bit more aggressive, but generally my experience in other cantons is 'don't be a dick' and it'll be OK, including Valais. I think they are generally aware of the summer dollar that MTB can bring.

There are miserable grumpy folk in every country walking the trails as if they are their own. As usual, with the particularly grumpy and aggressive 'rambler' types in CH, be as nice as pie, engage in a chat, and everything is usually OK.

That's great guys - thanks! Always give way to hikers and be smiley is the rule with us 🙂

Have a good look through here, some good info.
https://www.englishforum.ch/transportation-driving/236044-wanderweg-cycling-laws.html

Local Cantons do have different rules but the original bike law stems from unsuitable bikes on footpaths.... which may have been the case in the late 1950's but bikes are more suitable now....

I get by with being super nice and thick skinned. Comedy Fatbike works as well because "you bought it especially so the large tyres dont cause damage"....

We rode Chamonix-Zermatt a few years ago. There were a small number of no riding signs along the way. As we didn't have enough maps to detour and had to reach certain places each night if we wanted a bed, we didn't have a lot of choice but to ignore them. Most of the time there were no problems. We rarely met anyone and those we did meet were very friendly. As most of those signs were on wide trails, I don't imagine we did any damage to anything either.

However, we did ride on trail alongside one of the ditch aqueducts mentioned above. It was a great trail in a beautiful place and a bit of a highlight. Halfway along, we met a ranger who told us bikes were banned. (In this case, we'd either missed a sign or it wasn't there.) Luckily, he was a nice bloke, didn't care and wanted to practice his English on us but as we left he said that if we met his boss we had to say that he'd not seen us. Make of that what you will.

EDIT - to more specifically answer the question, you can ride on 'footpaths' in Switzerland a lot of the time. On that particular route, some trails (a minority) ban bikes, but as far as I know you can't tell which just by looking at a map. I'm not actually sure how you'd find out in advance either.

Brown - that's very helpful. I guess we're just looking for assurance they're not going to shoot us on sight or bang us in jail!

Don't suppose you have any GPXs of your route do you?