Skip to main content

Switzerland to more than double road tax to tackle congestion

The cost of the Swiss road tax vignette will more than double to US$106.50 per year from just over $40 at present. With the extra money raised, the Swiss Federal Council wants to tackle congestion on the roads throughout the country and also extend the road network.
March 16, 2012 Read time: 1 min
The cost of the Swiss road tax vignette will more than double to US$106.50 per year from just over $40 at present. With the extra money raised, the 2972 Swiss Federal Council wants to tackle congestion on the roads throughout the country and also extend the road network. This will see nearly 400 kilometres of new road added to the network in 2014, exclusively focusing on existing cantonal road links.

Other ways in which congestion will be tackled is through the opening of hard shoulders and temporary reduction of motorway speeds from 120 km/h to 100 or 80 km/h at certain times. The 2970 Swiss Federal Department of the Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications (Uvek) says a section of motorway reaches its maximum capacity when vehicles travel at 85 km/h.

There were some 16,000 hours of traffic congestion on Swiss roads in 2010, which was a 30 per cent increase year-on-year. The Swiss Federal Council says the total investment in roads will cost some US$327 milion per year, nearly half of which will come from the federal government and the balance from cantons.

Related Content

  • Indonesia’s road revamp is seeing new road transport connections
    July 16, 2018
    Indonesia’s road development programme is continuing, with a series of major projects being carried out across the country that will boost transport connections. State funding will help progress on the Trans-Sumatra toll road, paying for six sections of the road link. In all the 1,480km toll road project is expected to cost nearly US$11.85 billion, with state funding paying for a significant portion of the work So far the state-owned construction firm, Hutama Karya, which is building much of the route has
  • Global growth in machine rental
    May 20, 2015
    The machine rental sector is undergoing significant expansion worldwide – Dan Gilkes reports. Plant hire, equipment rental, leasing, call it what you will, being able to use a machine when and where you need it, with no further concerns relating to ownership costs, depreciation or sudden repair bills, remains a compelling argument for many contractors. Which is one of the main reasons for the continued growth in popularity of equipment rental across the world. Rental has been big business in the UK, the US
  • Warm asphalt is a hot topic
    June 12, 2012
    Lower temperature mixes – a key advance in bitumen technology - Kristina Smith reports Warm and cold mix asphalts were not on the original agenda for this year’s Eurasphalt & Eurobitume Congress, being held in Istanbul in June. But when the organisers took a look through the papers submitted for their sustainability-themed event, they realised that this is one of the industry’s hottest topics. “We hadn’t quite anticipated the high level of research in this area,” says E&E’s technical programme committee c
  • New road links will cut congestion in St Petersburg
    June 20, 2016
    Road building will solve the problem of traffic jams in St Petersburg – Eugene Gerden writes The authorities in Russian city St Petersburg plan to solve the problem of traffic jams in the city during the next few years. The strategy is expected to be achieved through road building and the improvement of transport connections between different districts in the city. Implementation of these plans will take place as part of the decree 355 "Of the Strategy of St Petersburg Economic and Social Development