Zurich
Switzerland’s largest city, at the north end of Lake Zurich. See Switzerland (Literary) and the Travel note Switzerland.
At a glance
| Source | Author | Role | In one line |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zurich’s Insane Plan To End Traffic | OBF | subject | How votes against burying the trams turned Zurich into a tram-first, car-light city. |
Sub-places
Zurich’s Insane Plan To End Traffic — OBF (2026)
Source: Original · Readwise highlight
At peak times, up to 17,000 people an hour converge on the square in front of the main station.
- Role: subject
- In the video: In the 1950s trams, taxis, cars and pedestrians jammed the square in front of the main station, and planners proposed burying the busiest tram lines in 21 km of tunnel to free the surface for cars. Voters rejected it in April 1962, 58,000 to 34,000. By the 1980s the old squares had become car parks; a 1996 “historic compromise” froze city-centre visitor parking at its 1990 level, so each new space must replace an old one and the old squares become car-free plazas. Perimeter control and tram priority followed.
- Why it matters: The whole city is the case study: its direct-democracy votes are the turning points, and the station square is where the problem began.