I live and work in St. Prex, between Lausanne and Geneva. Most of my interviews take place in one of the cities, although I find I’m increasingly seeing people in Nyon and Morges, as small businesses in particular find life along the lake cheaper and easier.

I am a great believer that we should all use public transport – as long as I’m not obliged to – which means I usually don’t. I confess that for years I’ve driven into Geneva for appointments because my day is always too crowded with work and appointments and I don’t want to lose time. This goes against my principles: I am seriously concerned about the planet’s future. That, unfortunately, has not been enough to make me take action on a regular basis. I’m not alone, judging by the growing number of cars on the road. Lausanne area traffic has been steadily growing, and Geneva, which has always had impossibly congested areas, is almost entirely clogged now and sensible people living in the city ride bikes.

Lately, though, it’s become clear that driving a car into the city is a time loser, not saver. This week I have appointments in or near Geneva on three days and I finally decided I simply can’t make it between two appointments tomorrow in the city. I was on the verge of canceling one but thought I should check bus schedules first. I was pleasantly surprised to see that on the TPG (Geneva public transport) site I can put in both addresses and I get an itinerary with precise times and maps. I could do this in English if I wanted to. If you’re a non-city person and you’re heading into Geneva, give the TPG’s excellent site a minute, and you might save quite a bit more time than that by taking the bus or tram. Your conscience might even be a bit easier.

A side note: the TPG’s English version of its site doesn’t appear to be working so the link here is to the main, French version and I’ve contacted the TPG to ask if this is a temporary problem. I’ll update the post with their reply.

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