Switzerland abandons compulsory cycle insurance

[twowheelsgood]

Went to the post office today and was informed they were no longer issued.

http://www.astra.admin.ch/00638/index.html?lang=de&msg-id=41706 translation

http://translate.google.com/transla...dmin.ch/00638/index.html?lang=de&msg-id=41706

I know insurance is a common complaint by motorists in the UK and this is food for thought. It really was never economic due to the cost of the scheme compared to any actual pay outs. It's also true to say most of us have 3rd party insurance anyway.

 

[downfader]

Went to the post office today and was informed they were no longer issued.

http://www.astra.admin.ch/00638/index.html?lang=de&msg-id=41706 translation

http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&u=http://www.astra.admin.ch/00638/index.html?lang=de&msg-id=41706

I know insurance is a common complaint by motorists in the UK and this is food for thought. It really was never economic due to the cost of the scheme compared to any actual pay outs. It's also true to say most of us have 3rd party insurance anyway.

Google isnt doing a very good job at translating it but the jist I got was something about "take out private insurance instead..."

So is it still law to have insurance on a bike there, or is it completely abandoned knowing how little damage bicycles and cyclists tend to do..?

 

[vernon]

Out of interest, how much was the insurance?

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

My German's not very good so I asked my Swiss mother for a summary of what the link says. She's just got back to me.

I have now read the article on Swiss Vignettes for cyclists. The vignette which was a sort of insurance, was to cover any damage the cyclist may cause. Now the cyclists are going to be responsible to pay for damamge they cause. I assume that will mean that if one injures a pedestrian then the cyclist is liable. They tell me that most Swiss have a personal insurance that covers such occurences.
I hope that answers your query. If not I shall ask Monique when I speak with her next.

And:

The obligatory insurance via the vignette ceased to be a legal requirement in CH on January 1, 2012.

Since the beginning of the year, it seems that Swiss cyclists are now pretty much in the same boat as UK cyclists as far as the law is concerned - to think that, when I was a kid, all Swiss bikes displayed a red and white number place! Liability for injury or damage caused, insurance a personal choice. A slight difference might be that as the change in the law is recent, there won't be a reasonably well-established system of 3rd party cycle insurance (via CTC, LCC, BC, etc)

 

[Manifietso]

I thought I was well genned up on Swiss law, but I hadn't come across this one. Have taken my own bike there and hired locally, never seen anything about needing this. Big difference between us and them is that when a law gets passed in Switzerland, most people obey it. I just can't see how a vignette scheme would work in practice though, unless you have some very big eye in the sky technology.