The canton of Bern is one of those states where coexistence on narrow paths is particularly difficult. The Verein Berner-Wanderwege and Pro Natura Bern have been successfully campaigning against mountain bikers in the forest and on narrow paths for many years.

However, mountain biking is also extremely popular in the canton of Bern, and the terrain between Jura Bernois and Simmental offers countless attractive routes. Conflicts are frequent and until recently, barely organized mountain bikers and highly professional mountain bike opponents were irreconcilably opposed to each other. Between them were politicians and administrators who were not allowed to get involved. Hansueli Zwahlen explains: "Mountain biking does not appear in any of Bern's non-motorized traffic laws, so the government's hands are tied."

Zwahlen chairs the organization BEBike, which was founded in mid-2021 and is working with some success to objectify the discussion about mountain biking and make infrastructure projects possible. One example is the trail testing facility in Adelboden-Lenk. You can read about the work of Zwahlen and BEBike in Ride N° 77.Of course, the Bernese from the Gantrisch region worked behind the scenes to ensure that the government recommended this amendment to the Road Act to the Grand Council for approval. Incidentally, he is called wherever owners, authorities and bikers have a problem with each other, he says.The revision of the Bernese Road Act is an important step, he says: "But not just because of the funding, but because it represents a commitment that mountain biking exists and that the canton wants to promote it." Although co-financing is formulated as a task of the canton in the proposed law, the contribution of 40 percent is only an upper limit: "The canton makes contributions to investments for the planning and implementation of signalized mountain bike routes. The contribution amounts to a maximum of 40 percent of the costs. The draft law does not specify a minimum contribution.What is important for the classification is that routes refer to a network of paths on existing trails. The canton will continue to not fund built bike trails. The revision also does not change the legal situation regarding cycling on hiking trails. "Cycling on hiking trails is neither prohibited nor permitted in the canton of Bern," says Zwahlen, describing the situation. This remains a challenge for BEBike.

After the law, the trail network

However, there is more than symbolic politics behind the revision of the Road Act. If the Bernese Grand Council approves it, the government wants to start defining and signaling a canton-wide mountain bike network in 2024, Zwahlen knows. This project has yet to be confirmed by the Bernese cantonal government.

Bike ambassador Zwahlen is already working on this so that in two years' time he will be ready with concrete proposals for Bernese bike routes that have been given the green light by the owners and municipalities. "The more funds we have available for this, the better the network will be, which can be realized from 2024." If the canton gets involved in planning from this point onwards, everything will become more cumbersome. That is why it is important to prepare as much as possible.

Zwahlen is therefore calling on the bike community to get involved too. BEBike has been able to attract an impressive 3,500 members since it was founded just over a year and a half ago. Each pays 50 francs per year. "That and the contributions from sponsors is the money we have available," he says, mentioning that he has worked 1950 hours for BEBike so far. For free.

"Our goal is 10,000 members. That would enable us to put the preparatory work for the Bern trail network in professional hands. With the contributions of the 3,500 members, we must continue to act as a kind of voluntary bike fire department to put out local fires." And this brings the pre-retired entrepreneur to his central message: "Mountain bikers must recognize that their financial commitment is needed so that they can continue to ride good trails in the future. Membership of BEBike or a regional infrastructure organization helps to secure this in the canton of Bern."