1. "The planning of hiking trails and mountain bike routes must be coordinated."

2. "Joint use of the trails (coexistence) is sought."

The Grand Council of the Canton of Bern recently added two new articles to the Road Act. This is remarkable, as this canton regulates mountain biking on narrow paths extremely restrictively. Strictly speaking, the two-meter rule applies.

"The revision of the Road Act is a milestone for mountain biking in the canton of Bern: the revision puts mountain bike routes on an equal footing with other recreational cycle routes. The Canton of Bern will now cover 40 percent of the investment costs for mountain bike routes designated in the sectoral plan," explains Andrea Greiner, lawyer at the Canton of Bern's Department of Construction and Transport.Hansueli Zwahlen, the mastermind behind BEBike, is also relieved. "This is the first time that mountain biking has been mentioned in law and only now can the authorities really get to grips with it," is his interpretation of the decision.Against the resistance of Bern's hiking trails

The revolutionary nature of the article is also demonstrated by how vehemently the Berner Wanderwege association fought against it. It commissioned a representative survey in an attempt to change the minds of the members of parliament. The majority of respondents did not want mountain bikers on the trails, was the result of the survey.

But it was no use. The majority of the council voted in favor of the revised road law. Incidentally, this involved many other changes, with the coexistence article being one detail among many. The president of Bener Wanderwege resigned from his post shortly afterwards.What does this mean for mountain bikers?Not much will change for mountain bikers on Bernese trails for the time being. Andrea Greiner explains: "The paths explicitly approved for this purpose may be used. On the other paths, the federal road traffic regulations and forest legislation continue to apply to biking." Hansueli Zwahlen admits the same. In contrast to other cantons (GR, VS, TI, ZH, UR, etc.), Bern derives a broad ban on riding on narrow paths from the federal road traffic law.

The new article in the Canton of Bern's Road Traffic Act refers to new routes and paths. "It is a planning principle," explains Greiner. In other words, it has nothing to do with traffic regulation and driving bans.

If the canton of Bern sets out to create new recreational routes for mountain bikers, it can and should approve them for dual use. This is the intention of Article 48b of the Road Act. This can be done on existing paths that are signposted as mountain bike routes. Or on newly built or adapted trails.

Nume nid gsprängt

Whether such trails and signaling are created is decided on a case-by-case basis. The previous version of the law stated that the possibility of coexistence should be examined. "Now the canton of Bern also has a basis for planning and implementing the shared use of path infrastructure," reads a blog post from BEBike.

The canton of Bern is moving. But it is moving slowly. "Nume nid gsprängt!" is the Bernese motto. And the bikers continue to ride, as they have done for decades. The Ride tour database has around 100 tours in the Berner Oberland, the Bern region and the Jura Bernois.