Update, 06:50: questionnaires are being handed out this morning, Thursday, on the A1, the lake road, in trains
Expect delays for the regional travel survey, but take time to contribute
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Commuters and other travellers beware: build in extra time if you are travelling into Geneva, no matter how you are getting there, because of the major regional traffic survey getting underway early Thursday morning 24 March, the group responsible for the survey has told GenevaLunch.
DON’T try to avoid the surveys, authorities beg: this is your opportunity to influence regional travel solutions.
Drivers in particular should expect slowdowns from 06:30-20:00 on the days the survey moves to highways and roads into Geneva, from now until mid-April.
Motorcycles, bicycles, pedestrians will also be stopped.
Each road will be surveyed just one day.
The survey is being carried out jointly by French, Geneva and Vaud authorities to obtain a clearer picture of transport needs today and in the future, in order to accurately plan a regional transport programme. They are asking travellers to allow time to help with the survey in order to get a cross-section of the population that is as broad as possible with answers that provide a wealth of information.
Motorists taking the A1 autoroute into Geneva will be pulled over shortly before Founex and drivers on the lake road can also expect to be stopped, but the exact area has not been announced. People taking trains and buses into the city will also be handed surveys.
Police warn that pulling drivers over for the survey will cause traffic delays on roads. These will not be as bad as in 2005 and 2002 when similar surveys were done, police note, with more reinforcements this time to get traffic moving again quickly.
Earlier, detailed announcement, GenevaLunch
Update 24 November 07:50 Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Police continue to investigate the accident that put a 70-year-old man in hospital in serious condition Thursday 19 November after his Golf was hit by a Lamborghini Murcielago in Genthod, on the lake road. The driver was a 22-year-old Russian with an alcohol level of 1.11 per 1,000 (legal limit in Switzerland is 0.5), with a drivers license that is not valid in Switzerland. The car had Geneva plates. The Tribune de Geneve carries a front page story about the accident, suggesting that it was the result of a race or chase by four flash cars whose owners were trying to see which car is the fastest, a suggestion that other media have carried.
Geneva police spokesperson Patrick Pulh told GenevaLunch that police have not, in fact, been able to establish if there was any kind of race. “These cars make a lot of noise even when they are just idling.” he notes. “We haven’t been able to establish the speed at which they were going.” The ongoing investigation is seeking to clarify the roles of all the drivers involved, he says, and it’s difficult at this stage to say how long it will take.
Coppet, Vaud, Switzerland (24 Heures, Fre) – Anti-noise walls along the autoroute are increasingly familiar as the federal government and cantons work to reduce unacceptably high noise levels. Less common: a high-tech plastic wall put up by a home-owner, at her expense, to reduce noise from the lake road, but this is what Amalia Ciriza in Coppet has done. The village is not 100 percent happy about it.
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A Portuguese man, 31, who lived in Geneva, died in a head-on crash with a taxi at 05:00 17 January, on the Route de Geneve in Lausanne. His two passengers were injured. Lausanne police are asking witnesses or anyone who can provide information to contact them by telephone at 021 315 1515.
