I was just about to say that - their English is fantastic! Wonder if they had English classes as a part of their curriculum at school or if they learnt it as adults.
Tom has managed to learn alot about himself with his YT channels, examples include; not having the G tolerance to become a pilot, loving the thrill of rollercoasters, not being allowed to buy a Stimbo car in Zermatt
Maybe he is winding down here on RU-vid so he can start his taxi business in Zermatt and get his very own Stimbo. You can get in and say "Scotty beam me up!"
honestly probably not as exciting as you may think, as the cars only drive up to 25 Km/h (11-12mph) with very few exceptions like some police cars or ambulances
In engineering, handmade means bad. There’s a reason the most accurately finished cars with the smallest panel gaps are Volkswagens, not Rolls Royces. If you want fine tolerances you want a machine.
@@HALLish-jl5mo Hmm, I don't disagree with your points although I do think in this case there are real benefits to the cars being handmade. It's much easier to consider how to repair and design the car accordingly. With the speeds at which these cars operate, hyperoptimisation in that direction seems overkill. In general, I think a blanket statement such as this is almost surely going to be wrong in some cases.
right. after 30-50 years you have replaced every battery cell 5-8 times. i wonder what that will cost you. unfortunately most electric cars are disposable junk.
@@HALLish-jl5mo Tailor-made would be a more accurate and favorable description of his products. Volkswagen isn't building you a car according to your specific needs, they can keep their water-tight panels
One time I was riding my bicycle next to the main road through town and I turned into a side alley. At that moment there was a big break in traffic on the main road and it got super quiet, so quiet in fact that I heard birds chirping and dogs barking in the distance. That moment sticks out to me. To think how quiet a city can be.
I live near a major highway in a rural part of Australia, and I literally can't sleep when it gets too quiet... My mind starts running through all the possibilities of why... Flooding, fires, fatal crashes, etc. And then I start to worry about it anyone's injured or if someone I know might have died. It's much easier to sleep when there's a constant roar of big diesel engines or the thundering of the "Jake" brakes.
@@kindalost1 well lead acid batteries gentle use and simple construction helps with that but you won't ever see one of these glorified electric bikes on the highway
I worked in Zermatt for three years, i have intimate knowledge of the Electros, loading guest luggage on and off the hotel taxis (they can handle quite a weight). They do go at a very quick clip though, and they're like banging diecast toy cars together when they crash. It always does look very silly when the police electro zips past, with coppers hanging off the sidebars of a milk float like prewar firemen.
the cars they make also have shaper corners then a knife. that sort of stuff was banned 50 years ago in other places... i have lived in a car free city, no need to make it wierd like this. the fact they need those boxes and not a bike to get around is like something out of a strange horror movie im getting serius frankenstein junior vibes from these people, even the accent is correct 🤯
Whats it like for locals that regularly need a car for carrying things like groceries up hills to their house? I'd imagine there would be some kind of relationship and deals made to have taxis available all the time.
@@mattcrwisimple, they adapt their lifestyle to NOT need a car. you have a car (and probably live far away from stores due to a car-centric lifestyle) so you buy groceries in bulk. they live in a small community that doesn't allow cars to start with, so they buy fewer and more often, which isn't much of a hassle because the store is probably just a block or two away.
For those wondering, there are other (less expensive) towns like this in Switzerland. Saas-Fee is very similar, just in the neighbouring valley. And there's Bettemeralp, where it's so snowy they can't use electric cars... they use sleds!
That changed alot in the last ten years. Longtime it was sledges (on holidays we always lived close to the horse stables) and some slope preparation vehicules. Now it is all over with small transportion cars and loud motorsledges (but no private cars).
I think it's funny you mention "less expensive" because these car permits are only for 3 years but the car is $160,000 and can only be driven 2-3 hours? Edit: 2-3 hours per charge. Am I missing something here or is my American just showing?
I went skiing in Zermatt and I had no idea this was a thing until I got there. When I ended up skiing down the wrong side of the mountain, I was able to catch an electric bus back to near my hotel on my lift pass. It was incredible and I don’t think I breathed in an emission for the whole time. It’s so easy to get to by train as well. 100% would go back, although it’s expensive.
Idk, where you live but as sSwitzerland generally has clean air - a big part of the quality is influenced by car pollution (which is often localized) Also, it is surrounded by mountains. So yes, there is actually a wall and pollution doesn’t affect this place really.
They must have researched Tom's poor driving skills and long history of accident's before he arrived. Good on you, Tom, for accepting your personal ban so graciously.
We lived in Switzerland in the sixties and always spent Christmas in Zermatt. There were only carriages in the summer and sleighs in the winter. When my brothers were coming back from ski lessons, they kept their skis on and grabbed onto the back of a passing sleigh so they could be towed back to our hotel.😂
I would like to point out that this is not something unique to Zermatt. There are other Swiss towns high up in the mountains which have taken the same approach, such as Saas-Fee. Up there, there’s a big parking lot at the end of the nightmarish twisting road, and after that it’s private cars for hotels and a big segmented one that functions like a bus.
I kinda wish I grew up in a minimal car town. My childhood was spent jumping from one city to the next, and I desperately wish I had the chance to just set roots in some small place where I could walk everywhere and hang out w/ close friends.
@ianhill20101 People who live mostly car-less do more physical work on the daily than those who don't. What are you trying to say? No gas cars means no physical jobs?
I grew up on a main road in the suburbs of a big city. I remember the noise of traffic past our house all the time. Would've been great to have grown up in a town/hamlet like this. Poverty sucks.
Almost the exact same story happened in Mackinac Island, Michigan USA! The island was isolated enough, and the people who lived there didnt want the noise or pollution of "Autonomous Carriages," so they enacted a law banning them. To this day, the entire island uses Horse-Drawn Carriages, and the only two cars on the entire island are one for the single police station, and one for the single fire station.
Mackinac historian here. The law as written states "horseless carriages" are banned. This law was lobbied for by the horse drawn tour operators of the era afraid that cars would spook their horses. While the ban initially was just for the city, it soon spread to the state park and had to be approved by the board of commissioners. This has allowed for some unique situations to unfold, like the only state funded highway in the US exclusively designed for and used by non-motorized traffic (M-185)
@@alexpaver5am I correct in thinking the year rounders can drive to and fro over the ice when it's frozen over? I am loosely related to the family that owns the Grand hotel and visited often and that's what I was told in childhood, once winter hits, all bets are off.
They also probably repair some cars (minor stuff) they made bc they're the only ones in the business. They might also save a bit by making so much themselves. Maybe!
I think it's worth it, because they have jobs where they aren't just cogs in a machine. Much more fulfilling to be responsible for the full lifecycle of a car than to be responsible for a few steps on an assembly line 10,000 times.
@@davidioanhedgesis it? You can buy 10 small vans for the same price, they would last longer, require less repairs, would be more more modern (as in a 50 year old vehicle is always going to be more outdated than a 5 year one), and would have significantly more speed, power, and range. It doesn't seem to make a huge amount of economic sense.
I know you're winding down, but if you want to contrast this in a not rich place, the Princes' Islands near Istanbul are also almost entirely electric. They do have private vehicles, often looking like two seat mobility scooters with plastic rain tents over them. There are some heavy IC vehicles for major hauling, but for the most part when you are walking around, it's a variety of electric scooters, buses, and tiny trucks going past.
@@justinokraski3796 Well, the island is only 4 square miles and the entire perimeter road is 8 miles. It's a little bitty island. I jog that far before breakfast. So who would even need a car? My grandmother walked it. And you gotta have a boat or a plane to get there.
Haha! I accidentally drove in last year… I think there were roadworks and they completely forgot to enforce any checks, and I had no idea! It was only as we were driving in and getting a ton of scowling looks by locals did I realise something was up! After pulling over and embarrassingly saying to someone “I think I’m lost” that they clarified and told me I should really turn around and drive back before I get into trouble! So I did and we got the train in! Quite satisfying to know now that I must be in a small handful of “lucky” people who have experienced driving there! 😳
@@mammothemilbro how is that his fault, he turned around when he figured out what went wrong. Just because it's the Internet you don't have to be rude for no reason
Mentioning the lack of noise reminded me of something: The town Delft by The Hague in the Netherlands is really strict about noise pollution, to the point that it's apparently deafeningly silent right outside its main rail station. I definitely agree that it would be nice if more places could have a more quiet atmosphere outside.
We pollute our environment in several ways. Noise, light, electromagnetic fields. All these can be disturbing to birds and insects, which we ultimately depend on for survival.
Wish the milk floats in my area were this quiet, despite being electric a lot are poorly maintained/clunky & thus noisy af Floats made a huge comeback during covid with bougie offerings people subscribe to monthly. Wakes me up 1am twice a week now :( .
I know you have an international audience and they don’t all have the same touch points as us, but the fact you needed to explain milk floats aged more more in the last five minutes than I’ve felt in the last few years.
There is a company that sells and hires out classic milk floats that is in the process of fitting Li ion to old floats, compatible with modern chargers. It is called Electric Milk Floats. They could take off as they are "tax, MOT, congestion zone and "T" charge exempt".
In our end of London we still have one.. we get milk and bread once a week (though they go past at least 3 times a week) .. they must be quiet because i've NEVER heard them make the delivery right below our bedroom.
The only (assumedly) petrol car I've ever seen in Zermatt was an emergency rescue offroader with tracks for wheels. Not just the cars are special there, but the buildings as well. They all have that signature chalet look because it's mandatory.
@@Alaric323 And would then take up 20x the square footage of a city, which would just be insane. There are balances for everything and cost vs requirements is one of them. No need, or want, for a manufacturing line when you're making less than 15 a year.
They've made a comeback since covid with niche pricey bougie 'organic' product offerings....sadly the float on my street wakes everyone up at 1am twice a week despite being electric, very clunky & noisy af.
There is a town in Hong Kong called Discovery Bay that was originally intended to be a 'resort-ish' town. Cars are replaced with golf carts and buses and Taxis are still allowed
I used to live in DB. It was utterly bizarre to see it at first, but you quickly get used to it. The taxis were more like little vans that looked like small VW campers, not really cars - although there are these old red sided car taxis. Should be noted that the golf carts were actually extremely loud and give off a lot of fuel smell, so it definitely doesn't have the same "peaceful" vibe aha.
I also lived there many years ago and remember watching about 7 of them go up in flames parked next to each other from my balcony cos one of them developed an electric fault. They cost an absolute fortune as well
You should see the car-free islands of Sweden. The west coast features islands that are either 1) no cars only golf-carts 2) not even golf-carts but wheel barrow is permissable and proper parking exists or 3) not even bicycles are allowed during the summer season. EDIT: And to add to this most of them are of higher population than Zermatt
Think of Heligoland where even bicycles are banned. Or the east frisian island without cars (even on Norderney, where cars are permitted, solely the drive from the ferry to your accomodation to unload and then to the central parkings are allowed)...
Are there taxis or busses? I'm thinking of folks living there who have difficulty getting around by walking or self-power. Illness, accident, age, etc.
The taxis are expensive. When we visit Zermatt, which we have done at least 30 times, we use a taxi twice per visit: once to get our bags from the station to our rented apartment when we arrive, and once again back to the station when we leave. In between times we use the free buses when we’re in our ski gear, and walk otherwise. The whole town, ignoring some outlying areas, is about a mile long, so that’s fine.
Labour (thus taxis) is very expensive in Switzerland. The airport is not even 12 kilometers from my home, the taxi cost me about 50 Francs! The train is like 10 times cheaper.
@@gentuxable individual transporting you to somewhere will always be more expensiv than using an infrastructure that is made to transport a lot of people at a low cost.
@@thefistofshadow7392 Not necessarily. On the Isle of Wight, to get from Sandown airfield into Sandown costs £2.50 by bus, and around £5-6 by taxi. if there are two people you end up paying about the same, if there are three people the taxi works out cheaper.
@@uis246 you're not getting the point. Of course the train is cheaper but i mean the taxis are way more expensive here in Switzerland than in other countries. How hard is that to understand? Put it this way, 5 Francs for 12 km (the price for the train) you can go for hours on a taxi somewhere else.
@miti4045 true but you'd be surprised at the amount of towns that could afford this yet focus on not solving the issue of cities not being walkable :(
@gollossalkitty it's not just about that though. Having your own vehicle gifts you true freedom to go anywhere you want. Without it you're stuck to premade destinations and would leave you paying high rates for the train, then a bus and then a taxi just to get to a location for a day out. Nobody would be able to afford that outside the middle and elite classes. So holidays for me but not for thee. The working class already have it so tough just getting by but a car makes shopping and getting to work so much easier and quicker. The UK are trying to do this, put a pay per mile charge on cars which would cost a fortune by estimates for the average person. That would price the majority of people out of being able to own a car, then we'd lose the freedom of being able to go anywhere we want at a time we prefer. It just wouldn't work and cause the economy to come to a crashing stop.
In the past being able to afford a car was the luxury. Sadly some societies have become outright reliant on cars today for many things, making it harder to do without them. Still, the only constant is change.
@@faustinpippin9208 It's a tiny, dense town - you can easily get around by walking, cycling, or by bus, even in winter. Heck, you can drive almost all of the way there.
Having been to Zermatt, the quantity of these electric taxis and also buses is actually quite disruptive to the walking environment. The roads are narrow and these vehicles are constantly going by. I would say it’s much less pleasant than the vehicle-light or vehicle free “old towns” of many European towns, where there are truly few or no motorized vehicles. I mean, Zermatt is cool for other reasons, but the ban on personal vehicles isn’t all it’s hyped up to be IMO.
Would you rather have an equal number of horse drawn carriages with the added size and increased smell. The electric taxis are a good modernisation solution.
One thing that really surprised me is the lifetime of these cars. 30 to 50 years is incredible. Imagine just owning one or two cars over your lifetime. Edit: And yes, I know it's because they are small and probably very over engineered but I still absolutely love them.
Dude... most of us here in Eastern Europe are driving normal everyday cars for 30+ years. Literally like every third car I see on the street are at least 25 years old. In smaller towns it's like half even.
@@zusurs I feel bad that you have to suffer with such old, reliable vehicles. In the US we're fortunate to have cars like the Chevy Cruze, Chrysler 300 and GMC Acadia that don't burden us with a lengthy ownership experience.
It's very cool to see a "car" company that is totally independent with handmade cars, especially nowadays. Just by looking at one you would guess they are mass-produced somewhere but no.
have a look at camper manufacturers, they operate in quite the same fashion all over the world as automation for low output is just not economical (yet). So they manufacture about as many cars as they have people employed (or if the vehicle is ten times as big they build a tenth of the employee number)
@@nsshingyeah, it’s kinda sad there’s zero competition for vehicles here and zero incentive for innovation. Luckily the rest of the world doesn’t operate like this or else we’d never progress anywhere.
@@justthebrttrksmall, efficient and quiet electric cars and vans looks like progress to me! The unusual local restrictions are in that sense a catalyst for innovation. I expect electric micromobility and cargo bike options also do well there. Cars have got bigger, pricier and techier over the decades but in many ways they have hardly changed.
Even with the electric vehicles and buses and taxis, peak season crowding has gotten to the point where Zermatt has considered other solutions. There is one ski resort in Austria that has its own U-Bahn system.
High frequency trains and foot traffic are just about the only way to handle really high density crowds. There does come a point at which you just have too many people for the space available!
I did a lot of Engineering for the Fiber Connections in Zermatt and it was a logistical Nightmare. We also had very special rules, one of them was of course to only use electric equipment. Another was how many buildings we could fit with fiber per year and a strict time windows. Overall it took us 5 years to complete it. Edit: Since this is such a heated topic, I want you to understand that Zermatt is a TINY Village in the end of a big Valley. there's only one way in and out. The People can vote to allow normal cars but they don't want to. It is a tourist Village and people come here because of the lack of cars and the view of the Matterhorn. It is very easy to get from one end to the other end of the village. No one is being forced here, if you don't like it, then you can move to the next town where cars are allowed again. If many people don't like it, they can vote to allow normal cars. This is a direct democracy after all and there's much more freedom than any of you could think of, if you've never been to Switzerland. Of course this System has it's drawbacks too and I'm not saying it's perfect. But this is just one town that collectively decided to go this way and I don't see how this should be a problem. All these things, including Budget of the municipal and more gets decided by the whole village at the "Gemeindeversammlung" wich is mostly twice a year. Every Citizen has the right to attend it and to vote, bring in changes, new laws and other stuff. A law like banning petrol cars can only be made at this event. So no, it's not someone at the municipal who decided it and enforced it. All people decide over this collectively!
Oh, so all is not rosy in a town with this much control over what you own and how you transport yourself. I wonder what other severe restrictions they have.
@@jamesengland7461 The system of democracy on Switzerland is localised. if the people didn't want it that way, they could vote for change...No place is perfect, & there are plenty of places in Europe still waiting for any kind of internet connection let alone high speed fibre....As for Switzerlands general attitude to rules.restrictions, they love them. Saying that i lived on a road in London where the council had an approved set of colours a private home owner could use to paint their doors.
@@zivkovicable Rules and restrictions themselves are not bad I think they are beneficial to society... but STUPID ILL THOUGHT OUT RULES AND RESTRICTIONS? Not so much and unfortunately we have too many of them!
Sent over to this video by Tim Traveller. What an interesting system and it was lovely to see how welcoming they were to you Tom. The pride when the vehicle manufacturer said “handmade quality” was rather poignant I thought.
I went to Zermatt just before the pandemic, and Tom is right, it is such a peaceful town especially at night because there is no noise pollution. And as a bonus, it looks like your stereotypical alpine village - it really is a gorgeous location!
I grew up around the same time as you Tom. And my part of the UK still has those kind of vehicles both as milk floats (as well as other drinks like Pepsi, Fanta, local mineral water) in pensioner communities like where my grandparents live and as library vans in my home village for people to rent books from. They're kind of adorable.
Milk floats disappeared from the town I grew up in decades ago. I'm still a little bit sad about it. ;( A small competitor company tried to take over when the big one quit, but they didn't last long. Someone did manage to start a milk float business years later, and I bought from them, but it wasn't the same without seeing the floats every day. ;)
To an extent, this is the world that anyone lives in who doesn't have a driver's license. "Do you have to take the bus or a bike or a train or WALK?" "Yes."
Except that we, the ones without a car have to live in fear when walking or biking that some car kills or hurts us out of nothing. Edit: no wait actually literally everybody except the people who own the companys that sell cars suffer from cars not only the people who dont use them.
@@louiscypher4186 They certainly do if they have to walk from A to B anywhere that has been designed for cars without properly considering foot traffic! Likewise cyclists. There are plenty of places where no such concern exists. Those places have proper footpaths, properly controlled crossings that drivers actually respect, and a whole hoste of other such features. Then there's a shockingly large number of places in the USA, and more than you might expect in Europe, that have None of those things... and the fear (in the 'low level constantly got to be aware of things oh watch out for that hazard' sort of sense, not, you know, crippling terror) is Very real there.
The Island Juist in Germany is also completely car free! Only bicycles and horse drawn carriages (at walking pace) are allowed on the road, except for maybe a few exceptions. I went on a class trip there in 11th grade & it was very peacefull (and kind of weird) because of how quiet it was :-) !
It’s not a one-off. In the neighbouring valley my home town of Saas Fee has a similar set-up with only elektro’s allowed in the village. We can drive to the entrance of the village but must then park in a multi stores carpark and then come in on foot/bike or Elektro. The swiss village of Murren also has a similar situation. There’s no doubt at times this can be a logistical challenge to get shopping and other larger loads from the car to the house but you find a way.
I thought this would be like in the 30s or the 40s and then they just decided to adopt electric vehicles in the last couple of years. When you said that this change was in the 80s, I was amazed. Imagine living in this village for your entire life and then the village decides to get rid of horses. In the 1980s, when the vast majority of the world had gotten used to cars and planes.
They had a good thing going and never changed it. The horses were part of the charm that made it possible to charge tourists extreme amounts of money. And they needed to keep being special, because if you were to build a parking garage in town (or worse, allow car traffic in most streets) the town would lose the charm and be no different to every other ski resort.
@@sys-administrator Bit of a misnomer; they refuse cars, so people driving up have to park somewhere; the next town over worked out a deal to let them park there and shuttle bus over.
@@sys-administrator they can ban that practice too if they want. They absolutely can do that, but I bet they make quite a bit of money from the parking fees.
@@elu9780 They certainly could. It would be very stupid economically to turn away that extra money though when the people showing up aren't coming to *your* town but the next one down the road.
Good on Tom to point out that this town choose to do this and is able to do this for very specific reasons that can't be replicated elsewhere. However I would contend that this town *has* gotten rid of all "cars" because that usually means private vehicles. Working vehicles like vans or trucks aren't cars and there's going to be a place for them in the future regardless of how much towns/cities improve walkability and transit.
I think everyone would be fine with that, provided that they are in fact working vehicles, and not a glorified codpiece like most 'light trucks' that are currently circumventing regulations put on cars.
Sure, there would be a need to register vehicles and their purpose like this down does. But it doesn't matter if people are "fine with" working vehicles or not. Light rail is not taking people to the hospital, for instance. This town has gone as far on the path of removing road bound vehicles as is possible within the forseeable future.
It's not like it can't be replicated elsewhere though. It definitely can be. My own city could definitely use that, especially if more public transit is used instead of private cars.
Honestly, huge commercial trucks can be a big nuisance too. But they're less of a systemic issue than individual vehicles. Some places need just a bit of regulation to nudge the fret industry in the right way.
There's another town in Switzerland called Wengen which has exactly the same system. I stayed there on holiday and it worked perfectly, within the town you walk and to go anywhere else you use the excellent railways and cable cars.
Now a town, just a village. And groceries are expensive up there because almost everything must be brought by cable car. There's also the village of Rigi, which does have a service road but not open to the public. However, there's no electric car or bus up there. Some permanent residents brought a small utility car up there, as well as farmers who need cars and trucks in the pastures, but it's otherwise a funicular train that traverses the mountain.
@@alexfrye6 maybe I mixed up some words by mistake. I meant that merchandises are transporter through the funicular trains. It is so in Rigi, and I suppose it's also the case in Wengen.
@@gokudomatic funicular = Zahnradbahn (like the train for up the rigi or the train going up to Kleine Scheidegg), cable cars = gondel. There are some places that require their resources to be brought up by cable car, like the Aescher Berggasthaus or likely mürren, you have to take a cable car to even get to the train and there is a second cable car in the village iirc.
The noise thing: one german city (I think it was) lent into to banning internal combustion engines and added noise walls to deflect the sound of tyre noise. And they noticed the same thing. Cities aren't noisy, it's just the cars. And stuff can be done about it. The strong towns lot did a video on it.
I think the difference is more noticeable in towns than in cities as buildings are closer together and normally car noise only becomes a nuissance at 50+ km/h. I noticed that although it has more traffic Buenos Aires is a quieter city than Montevideo as avenues are wider and there are fewer motorcycles. A solution I like is Tokyo's use of median barriers and sidewalk bushes to attenuate traffic noise, given internal combustion engines will be with us for at least another decade.
Here in Copenhagen (and possibly in other cities in Denmark), small vehicles just like this are used by the people who do all the maintenance of our parks and other walking and biking areas. They slip in, sweep the paths and collect garbage, paint, clean, and whatever else needs doing, and then quietly roll along. This really resembles what many big cities have started to do, where vehicles are banned in the innermost city because they're so crowded that you have no choice but choose between cars or people, and if you allow cars in, you inevitably end up with several kilometer long queues, and then there's not enough space for people. As long as you have proper public transport systems, there is no need for everyone to have their own vehicle, and when these systems are in place, many people never learn to drive or don't own a vehicle, because they have no need for it. And when you rarely do need a vehicle, there's always rental and share-car systems
@@nightowlnzab Many toyota's last that long. I have a 79 land cruiser that is still running perfectly with over 800k km on it . The price has more to do with the fact that its electric (which fetches a premium) and that its all hand crafted and not built at scale. Another concern is the locally created monopoly forcing you to buy vehicles from this company if you work there which doesn't help with the price either. Its really a shame because a low cost version of these vehicles mass produced globally would be very interesting
@@nightowlnzab All cars are expected to last this long. Is anyone buying a car expecting it to last only 5-10 years? Also, that doesn't mean you aren't getting maintenance on this thing constantly like any normal car. Feels like marketing rhetoric. 🤨
@@nightowlnzab Modern cars will easily last for 15 years (with maintenance of course) and small city cars start below $20k in Europe. So I think economically it does not make sense, only from a noise and pollution standpoint.
@@sanisidrocr If they import small Chinese electric cars the price will be maybe $30k, not $160k... Its expensive because its built in Switzerland at extremely low volume.
It's quite easy when the vehicles don't have to go blistering speeds and their drivetrain is electric. Less engineering needed to keep them safe at their rated speeds.
Same, especially since they’re electric. I hear about modern electric cars ruining their batteries in 5 years but here we have 50 year old Lead-acid milk floats driving around to this day, it’s incredible.
Im a huge car person, love driving and customizing. I wonder if I was born in this town, what hobby would I have had instead. Always interesting to think about how environment shapes who you are.
i also like it when the city goes quiet, i used to live in this one smaller city which would do this around 10AM-12AM when everyone was at work and school (and not in a lunchbreak). walking in there around that time felt so serene.
Back in 2001 (I was 13 at the time), my dad and I toured all over Switzerland. We made a journal of what we saw and where it was on a map. I went to Zermatt then and when my dad told me they did not have cars I was a bit confused. It is a great place to visit. When I saw the title of the video I knew where it was right away, I'll never forget when my dad and I where leaving we saw a mountain goat up on a hill just doing its thing as our train was heading back down.
I got a job at the end of a valley at where the rest of the valley was a state park, and went outside late one day and there was no noise. It was literally stunning to be in my normal life and not have that low level noise hum that is just always there. Seriously I think that constant noise is part of why we are so much more stressed and anxious now.
Even on vacations in nature you always have people running super loud cars or motorcycles for fun, and you can hear them from very far away. And in the city, it is absolutely horrible. It's just extremely sad how reckless, antisocial and selfish this society has become. And if you look around on youtube, everybody applauses.
@@ChessAndWaterwe'll figure it out eventually! humanity is known to adhere to stupid and damaging things for "fun". lead pottery was all the rage in ancient Rome, and we survived that somehow
I used to live in a house that fronted one of the three main north-south arterial streets in my town. I used to love sitting out on the front porch at 3am. I couldn't figure out why it calmed me so much until the night I realized that was the only time without traffic noise. Ever since then I cannot stand the sound of cars
In old Europe people lived packed 10 to a house, and 300 to a block, and people do chatter and yell and snore. So seems humans since 1700 with growth of cities have been living with constant noise. On the farm is cows, pigs, sheep, chickens, kids, all making noise. In a village probably were 30 babies on one's block, so usually a few babies always crying in the background to be heard. . .. . .And a roaring fire making noise and putting out woodsmoke that would sting your eyes as people tried to balance the annoyance of the fire vs the coldness of 6 months of winter. . . . . . Modern city living in London probably aint that louder or more annoying than olden days. Humans have never really had utopian paradise and current world is probably closest we ll ever get.
It is not even the only place in Switzerland without cars, though it is the biggest. There is also Bettmeralp/Riederalp and Belalp, accessible only for agricultural/electric vehicles (under a certain weight) over a dirt road and by cable car, all in Valais - so the same Canton as Zermatt. In winter this has the added advantage that everything is accessible by ski. So in winter you can do your shopping by ski…
It would be nice if more cities had a big parking area somewhere and then a walkable downtown. Some places are trying to be more walkable but banning cars is difficult if you still need a car to get to the walkable area.
A common solution (in the UK) is a 'park and ride' scheme, where there's a big car park on the edge of town, and frequent buses into the walkable part.
@@robinbennett5994 Unfortunately, the implementation is very mixed quality, with some not running very often on Sundays/late or shutting overnight. I'd love to be able to leave my car on the edge of Bristol, bus in for a concert, stay overnight, bus out, but it's not allowed.
Tom, nice video! Zermatt however isn't the only example of this. There are at least two other villages in Switzerland - and probably many more - that do not have private cars and only have these small electric vehicles: Wengen and Mürren. They too outsource their parking to the village down the valley (Lauterbrunnen), and no vehicles can normally drive to these villages. It is different to Zermatt in that the villages are situated on the top of either side of two very large cliffs with only train and/or cable car access. Unfortunately not unique, even within Switzerland!
*Fortunately* not unique. I visited Zermatt in 2000, and when I saw the title of this video, wondered “what are the odds it’s Zermatt?”. One would hope that more places do this for the quiet and walkability.
As of my visit in 2017, there are some diesel and petrol burning vehicles operating in Zermatt with very significant exhaust filtering. These are typically for applications such as earth moving & heavy construction(“bulldozer”), trash trucks, etc.
@@TheBelrick One of these "liberty devices" is not like the other, lmao. To live in a city built for the car, you have to pay down a $30,000 vehicle, thousands per year in insurance, more thousands per year in gas and maintenance, then tens of thousands in taxes to subsidize the transportation industry and repair the roads. Do you really consider yourself free?
@@TheBelrick the reality is that you are forced to buy a car in the US to have any sort of mobility. The coersion is there always, just in different ways and it is always dictated by the environment
@@Exgrmbl spoken like someone ignorant of history Cars grant people the freedom to travel vast distances in short periods of time Rulers want plebs to remain stuck in the same hovel their entire lives. See 15min cities for resurgence of dark age levels of oppression People WANT to buy and own cars. They are incredibly popular. Despite the propaganda you may have been brainwashed into childishly accepting.
@@TheBelrick and in Switzerland most households have a rifle stashed somewhere, as they have a conscription army and everybody who leaves is a reservist for some time after and has to maintain proficiency with their weapon.
It is actually very simple to live without cars like that. It is just something the car industry trys its best to discredit and to make it sound like the ramblings of a madman. One should never forget about the influence those companys have over town inftrastructure and on local societys.
To be fair, for some things you do need cars. Don't think we could completely ban them unless we radically changed how people lived, etc. But yes, you're absolutely right they're horribly over-used. Especially when people drive full-sized cars with four or five seats and copious cargo space, just to transport themselves from Point A to Point B.
Cars aren't bad per se, it's the dependency and unbalance in city planning as they're often used as justification for poor pedestrian infrastructure and whatnot.
Other towns like Wengen and Mürren in Switzerland are also car free. Another reason I believe is to keep the old town charm for both locals and tourists. In the video, you can see all houses are similar and in the swiss style- no TALL hotels looming over everything! It's always lovely to pass these villages when I go hiking :)
Local businesses do have ICEs there but they appear to be quite limited. Wengen still has no road to the outside world (inhabitants voted against it not so long ago) so anything needed is brought in by the cog railway - two trains to/from the valley every hour. Mürren has a road (they voted for it) but like Zermatt use is strictly controlled. The down side is that there is still construction and repair which needs heavy and bulk materials to be delivered so during daylight there is a constant drone of helicopters delivering concrete, bricks, timber etc.
This is actually the most famous place in switzerland. The mountain in this village is called matterhorn and it's the cover of the toblerone chocolate.
I can think of at least 3 other villages in Switzerland that are car free like Zermatt which have similar little vehicles. Saas Fee is car free and has a massive car park as you reach it. Both Mürren and Wengen are above the town of Lauterbrunnen which has a very steep valley and those villages are only accessible by cable cars or railways and are therefore car free as well.
Bettmeralp / Riedalp / Fieacheralp almost the same, except farming equipment and building equipment, those are petrol powered. There's other places, like Spiekeroog (an island off the German coast) in other countries as well. Spiekeroog has the advantage of not having steep inclines...
A while ago I wrote a sci-fi setting where this was the norm, the towns - also in mountainous regions - were built with this very model in mind, of organizations sometimes having special permission but otherwise no, you got temporary usage permission or used public transit. It wasn't even supposed to be some utopian pipe dream or a perfect vision of the future, just a way a particular distant planet operated. A lot of people thought it was dumb and unrealistic and couldn't imagine such communities not having, I don't know, personal monster trucks for mountaineering? I'm glad to see that it's not only complete fantasy, but also a system which has functioned somewhere for 50 years.
There are other towns like Serfaus in Tyrol, Austria, with a similar attitude. Serfaus is probably the smallest town (less than 1500 inhabitants) with a subway train, the Dorfbahn Serfaus.
Mackinac Island in the USA is quite similar. The only cars are emergency vehicles. Even departmental work is done with horse drawn carriages and wagons.
I have been to Zermatt in the late 80's and the last time in 1990. So nice to see that the car situation has not changed since then. Those same vehicles are still driving and you still hear this very specific whine when they approach. Saas-Fee in the Valley right to the east has the same system.
If I remember correctly some of the Frisian Islands like Langeoog banned all gasoline cars except for firetrucks or ambulance etc. Additionally vehicles are limited to walking pace.
Swiss here, I was here for vacation a couple of years ago, after just a couple of days and as a person used to walk in hilly regions of Switzerland, this experience without cars was very… refreshing. Great views and amazing hikes, highly recommend wisiting Zermatt.
Honestly, I think Tom's quote at the end was too pessimistic and a bit untrue "only works because this is a small, rich and very expensive ski resort with a weird history". Small car-free towns are actually quite common on smaller inhabited islands not connected by bridge. The entirety of the Gothenburg and most of the Stockholm archipelago and is car-free and some of the islands are little towns with streets shops and restaurants. There are hundreds of islands like that. Really the handbuilt 145 000€ EV's are the only thing that wouldn't work anywhere else. But most of these entirely car-free places just allow golf buggies, cargo mopeds for private citizens. And for businesses tractors, and small ATVs that serve the same purpose and make more financial sense.
He said that it's so easy because of their unique circumstances. Unfortunately it's not nearly as simple as banning cars and having travel be solved. The more the city's been designed for cars the harder it is to fix the problem
On the island of Helgoland in Germany, cars and even bicycles are banned by federal law. Maybe you wanna check this out? It even has an Airport runway with traffic Light for pedestrians.
@@exsandgrounderno it isn't Helgioland is in the north sea quiet far from the coast, you can't build a causeway there. He made a video about one of the railways connecting the islands in the Wattmeer
I used to go to Zermatt a lot when I was younger. I always thought the tiny cars were cool, but then you sit in one and it's quite bumpy. Strangely enough, I always remember them sounding a bit like whales when they moved about.
Sorry but most traffic noise nowadays is the rolling sound that increases with speed, not the engine sound. The fact theres not much sound is because they drive 30kph...
I went there in 2017 and have to say I had totally forgotten about the parking and taking the train thing. Such a great walk down memory lane. Thank you, Tom.
Where my business is located, in the middle of nowhere in eastern Kentucky, there are so few people that you can go hours upon hours, even during the day, without hearing a single car. Not even off in the distance. Though we have the main road for our area running directly in front of the business. Places like this are getting rarer and rarer these days, especially on the east coast of the US. I absolutely love having it to enjoy!
If the US would drop the import tariffs on EVs that picture could rapidly change. I moved back to the same village I grew up in and the more affluent areas have like 20-25% EVs. Traffic is noticeably quieter there, and general traffic is quieter than in the 1990's. We just need to follow China's example and ban combustion scooters. Those things are extremely loud and stink, for very little mobility in return.
That lack of noise was something you noticed a lot in my country, the Netherlands, as well during the covid-19 lockdowns. It was great. All gone now, back to pre-lockdown noise levels.
Sometime in the late 80's, I was in one of those northern Italian cities, and I woke up in the middle of the night to complete silence. There were no cars/motorcycles running anywhere, streets completely clear. That's the last time I experienced that in a city.
If you can find somewhere in Italy where there are no cars or scooters now.... well done. The place is cramme with cars. Maybe during the next world cup final if Italy are playing.
There's quite a few almost entirely car free islands along Germany's north sea coast. I went to Juist a few times as a kid, and horse-drawn carriages are still very much in use there!
The trouble with making things that last forever is that your customers only buy from you once. Great for people; great for the environment; bad for the shareholders.
@@bighamster2let's face it, nothing "lasts for ever" but it's a great sales talk. Ever heard of a dead battery, or corrosion? If one car costs 160K, I bet the parts aren't that cheap as well (ask Tesla owners, with batteries of over 30k)
There are other mountain resorts like this in Switzerland. For example, Saas-Fee in the neighboring valley east of Zermatt, Wengen and Mürren in the Jungfrau region. I was in Wengen 2 years ago, very cosy and quiet indeed, I liked it so much more than the car-friendly resort of Grindelwald or even the scenic village of Lauterbrunnen down in the valley from Wengen, but with a road crossing through it.
even though I'm German, not Swiss, these accents give me life. also, people at that age speaking clear, proper English... we German-speakers have a reputation for speaking decent English and being humble about it, but the truth is, many people over 30-40 are still very insecure in it. I'm glad this tiny Swiss town is so well-represented internationally.
Well, I would still assume this is heavily influenced by the fact that this village sees way more international visitors than most other places in Germany or Switzerland. I think if you go into a town like Bern or Zürich you'll equally find many people very insecure in any other language than German as you see it in Germany to be honest.
@@gentuxabletotally agree except for the Zurich part…my French speaking friend moved there a few years back and he ended up improving his English faster than his German!
@@helljester8097 it depends on the environment I think he works in a bigger company bank or IT something with many expats or international connections. I live in Zurich and the average Swiss person here fall short to the proficiency of those in this clip.
@@riccriccardoricc exactly if you go to a famous touristic place in Germany I think you’d find very secure English speakers as well. It’s because you get used to through exposure to a language. I learned way more French in 3 years with my ex than in 5 years of French class.
Tom: many towns want to switch to something more transit friendly and walkable Most towns I've lived in: haha time to spend £100m adding another lane so we can build another car centric housing estate on the edge of town with no other connectivity
I worked for a small dairy in my teens and university years - starting as a "milk boy" off an electric float then driving the floats when I was a bit older. They were slow (30mh flat-out down a hill!) but could carry a lot and could run for some 8 hours or so on a charge. Huuuuuge vented lead acid cells that had to be topped up every week. I miss the milk delivery in recyclable glass bottles - I know it's still possible in some areas which is nice, but it's just not quite the same...
Currently on vacation on the German island of Juist in the Northern Sea. Here they use horse carriages for everything. Passanger transport, supplying the businesses and hotels and everything else. More or less only emergency services are allowed to use cars here. Every so often there is a discussion to change from Horses to electric carriages but for touristic reasons and the image of the island that will (hopefully) never happen.
