Sans Voiture à St. Jean

View of Geneva from the Lake

Geneva, Switzerland – When I first came to Geneva, I arrived with three suitcases and a passport. My first weeks were spent walking from a rented room to my office, in typically cold and wet January weather.

While I lamented not having a car during those first ear tingling winter days, I soon found that Geneva was small enough to accommodate a carless existence. And by my second month, I began questioning the need for a vehicle altogether.

As I made plans for my family to join me I began to wonder, “was it really necessary for a family of three to have a vehicle in Geneva?” I began to explore the City, buying all day passes on public transport and taking various buses to the end of the respective routes, to see what I could see.

At the end of three months, I felt I had fairly well plumbed the limits of Geneva proper and was familiar with many of the outlying towns, where I would share the bus with more business minded commuters intent on getting home before the local Migros closed for the weekend; my stupid grin advertising my out of town status and the fact that I was “riding for fun.”

Riding to Hermance

Still, I was elated when I got a bicycle and was able to “escape” the city on a whim, and to explore those same towns on dreary Spring days without fear of missing the last bus back to Geneva.

I rode around Gex in the snow , found a homely café in Chancy, and followed an old logging road outside of Saint Julien, that led me to the foothill communities around Collonges-sous-Saleve, France. It was a nostalgic time, reminding me of how life was, not more simple, but more in focus on two wheels.

Two years later, I have learned to navigate nearly all aspects of life in Geneva without a car. I still dream of carefree road trips and getting lost on dirt tracks, miles from home, but I have also come to appreciate having one less inanimate object in my life taking up space on my list of things to fix, organize etc., (and I haven’t had a parking ticket in two years).

Note: for more information on Geneva’s bike trails, check out La Carte Vélo de Genève.

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