The trail miracle of Zurich: How we are taking the sport of biking further despite polemics

As the board of Züritrails, we never thought we would ever have to write a text like this. What happened? Last Tuesday, Swiss television channel SRF showed "Keep on Riding", a piece of bike culture: trail riding as we love it, filmed from the perspective of mountain bikers. Completely surprisingly and to our great regret, this also included footage of unofficial trails around Zurich.

On the one hand, it is clear what the effect of such photos is: Those who don't know the trails yet want to ride them. The pressure to use them is increasing and the chances of the trails being closed are rising rapidly - trails that are important to many long-time riders. This in turn encourages the creation of any number of new descents across sensitive forest areas, which immediately boosts bike critics.On the other hand, it is understandable that Züritrails, as a lobby organization for legal bike infrastructure, firmly rejects these recordings. Because there is much more at stake than the threat of trail closures. Such contributions have the potential to sabotage years of development work. The dispute between the authorities, various stakeholder groups and mountain bikers in Zurich has a long tradition. At times, this culminated in the demand to ban biking on the Üetliberg altogether. One remnant of these conflicts remains to this day: Bike transportation by train is strictly prohibited.

Thousands of members for trail tolerance

We reject the fact that Züritrails' negative reaction culminates in the accusation that we are contributing to the "self-destruction" of the scene. We are concerned with trail tolerance on existing paths, the sensible separation of bike and hiking trails and the sustainable use of open spaces in the city and nature - for children to experts.

Ten years after its foundation, around a thousand members support this commitment. Together, we have achieved that Züritrails is not only accepted by the public sector, environmental associations and other interest groups as a representative of mountain bikers, but is also involved as a partner in the planning of forest use. This cooperation is not cast in concrete, as it requires trust, tolerance and a willingness to compromise that must be constantly renegotiated on both sides.

Trail construction without objection

The most recent result of these efforts was a trail miracle by Zurich standards: not a single complaint was lodged against the application for a new, challenging trail of around four kilometers and construction will start very soon. It is against this background that the provocative and, from today's perspective, admittedly not constructive claim for damages against the SRF should be understood. For Züritrails, it is about much more than the incomprehensible advertising of unofficial trails. It's about building a trail that costs CHF 400,000, years of commitment to mountain bikers and a lot of goodwill from the public sector.

The fact that the footage from Zurich was removed from the SRF archive after a short time is to SRF's credit. It has made a significant contribution to calming the situation. It is regrettable that all other contributions have now been removed. That was not our request. And we understand that Thomas Giger is upset that his Barrhorn section is also offline. Whether this means that trail culture will be banned from television is something we dare to doubt. In any case, we are seeking talks with SRF and are open to an amicable solution. Now our focus is back on the essentials: The upcoming trail construction and crowdfunding, without which it won't work.

www.zueritrails.ch