We have all done it on occasion — disregarded the red light for pedestrians and crossed the road regardless. Does this mean we broke a Swiss law?
Though some countries have laxer rules, crossing on red (also called ‘jaywalking’ in some parts of the English-speaking world) is illegal in Switzerland.
The reason for it is simple: your and everyone else’s safety is at stake.
Even if you duly look both ways, just as your mom told you to do, and the road looks clear, you are still committing an infraction if you are crossing when the light is red.
That’s because a vehicle could suddenly appear from somewhere and not be able to stop in time to avoid you.
Obviously, being hit by a car while crossing on red is bad enough — for you and the driver — but even if you do get away with it and an assidous police officer spots, you could be slapped with a 20-franc fine.
But that’s not all
The same rule applies to crossing the street in traffic, especially if there are no traffic lights to guide you.
This means that you should only do so on designated pedestrian crossings, and not randomly anywhere in the street, bringing all motorised traffic to a screeching stop.
But even on pedestrian crossings, you should not just step into traffic haphazardly — that is, step off the curb unexpectedly, without first checking left and right.
While you, as a pedestrian, do have the right of way, you should only step on the crossing when it is safe to do so, and not when a car is so close that it can’t possibly stop in time.
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Be street-smart
These two rules also apply to pedestrians in Switzerland:
- In 30 km/per hour zones, you can cross the road anywhere, but you have no right of way. This means if you see cars coming, they have priority.
- If there is no sidewalk (as is often the case in the countryside) and you have no choice but to walk on the road, always keep to the left edge.
All this may sound as though it should be self-understood, if not intuitive, but you’d be surprised how many people break those rules.
Looking just at 2023 (the last data available) 42 pedestrians were killed and 476 were seriously injured in Switzerland, according to the Federal Roads Office.
Of particular note is the increase in the number of fatal accidents (24) at pedestrian crossings.
