Mountain bikers and hikers live in a quasi-marriage. Connected for life and dependent on each other. Admittedly, it may not have been love at first sight. And there's the occasional spat, especially when the mountain biker's rebellious side meets the hiker's bitchy genes. But on the whole, it's a harmonious marriage. The ingredients for this harmony are the same on the trail as they are at the altar: respect, tolerance and compromise.

More and more voices are now calling for separation. Because mountain bikers have become somewhat more numerous and some hikers are wishing for a return to the days of being single, the well-functioning concept of trail marriage is now to be thrown overboard. A separation would mean that mountain bikers and hikers would have separate trail networks. There are currently 40,000 kilometers of hiking trails in Switzerland. At least three quarters of these are suitable as bike routes. Their construction value: around three billion Swiss francs. That would have to be forked out so that hikers and mountain bikers no longer clash.

In the home of the hikers and mountain bikers, it has become a little cramped in some rooms. In a normal marriage, no one would think of splitting up and building a second, largely identical but enormously expensive house next door. However, this is exactly what is often proclaimed in discussions about the use of the path. All it would take is a few minor structural measures in the house and for the residents to remember the basic values of a marriage: Respect, tolerance and compromise. Divorce, on the other hand, is usually not the solution, but the start of the problems. In real married life, this is called a war of the roses. For hikers and mountain bikers, it would probably be the Alpine War of the Roses. We should prevent this. With respect, tolerance and compromise.

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