Sign the online petition here.

Mountain bikes and the people who enjoy riding them have a hard time in the canton of Solothurn. The government  parliament is working on a new forest law that amounts to a ban on riding on single trails.

Solothurn has been celebrating mountain biking for years with Bike Days and the gravity community has been finding the flow on the freeride trail on the local mountain Weissenstein since 2002. But just as the people in charge let the trail fall into disrepair, Solothurn's love for mountain biking apparently crumbled. Various parties have been arguing for years and blocking the opening of a new bike trail on the Weissenstein.

But, as described at the beginning, this is not the biggest problem for the people of Solothurn, who love single trails. Because now, almost everywhere in the canton with its rugged Jura mountains, they are threatened with a ban on riding on the trails that mountain bikes are made for. "The basic permission to cycle will be restricted to existing forest roads and specially designated paths," states the consultation draft.

The main reason given for this restrictive regulation is the negative impact of mountain biking on nature. The fact that no one knows how large the share of mountain bikers is in the overall impact of all human activities in the forest plays just as little a role as the fact that neither flora nor fauna nor the soil have perished in the cantons with trail bike-friendly laws.

Mountain bikers were consulted - it didn't help much

The IG Mountainbike Solothurn has been involved in the discussion about the regulation of cycling in the forest for two years. In the discussions, there has always been a consensus that a ban would not achieve anything, they write in the justification for the petition that they have now launched. It turns out that laws are not created in participatory processes where everyone can get involved. The decisive factor is who can make their voice heard where articles are actually formulated - in the responsible political authorities and administrative departments.

The IG Mountainbike now wants to use signatures collected online to show how great the need is for narrow forest paths on which mountain biking is permitted. Or as they put it: that the proposed article in the Forest Act would mean that biking can no longer be practiced legally in the canton of Solothurn. The fact that such a ban cannot be enforced with any reasonable effort does not make things any better for mountain bikers.

It is unclear whether the petition will be able to steer the revision of the Forest Act in a direction that is favorable to mountain biking. IG MTB SO hopes that broad sections of the public will speak out loudly against the article. However, experience shows that even among those directly affected, by no means all of them will actively stand up for their interests. It will certainly take further initiatives aimed directly at those working on the law to prevent the ban on single trails.

Weak consolation on the Weissenstein

A few weeks ago, work began on the start ramp of the new Weissenstein bike trail - it is the final stumbling block in what has now been almost ten years of approval drama. The new trail is due to open in the fall of 2024. If the ban on single trails actually comes into force, the new Weissenstein trail would be nothing more than a consolation.

Further information and online petition