Mobility in Switzerland is to be climate-neutral by 2050. But what exactly will that look like? Together with Expedition Zukunft, we have created five possible future scenarios in the form of postcards. This enabled parliamentarians to immerse themselves in possible futures during a policy sprint.
Together with Expedition Zukunft, we have developed five postcards that illustrate possible future scenarios of climate-neutral transport. In the process, we travelled to a futuristic Ascona, Bern, Geneva, Safiental and Zumdorf. The futures are based on current megatrends and the latest research findings.
The postcards from the future were used at the Expedition Future Policy Sprint. The aim of their Policy Sprints is for parliamentarians to work with stakeholders to develop effective solutions to policy challenges.
The postcards invited people to immerse themselves in different futures and, by imagining a desirable future, to develop effective measures now that will bring us closer to that future.
In our climate-neutral future, drones will buzz into the Safiental valley and supply even the most remote places in Switzerland with everything possible. Freight transport now runs autonomously and self-driving buses and hypernetworks also complement the public transport network very intelligently. The car-sharing aspect has also increased a lot in recent years, and so people are also sharing their cars in the villages.
In this future, the car as part of the private sphere has already developed into mobile living spaces that are completely self-sufficient thanks to solar or wind energy. For this purpose, parking spaces have been created in Ascona, as well as all over Switzerland, where the cars sometimes join together to form entire buildings. In this way, new spontaneous settlements are created depending on the season and day of the week. In this climate-neutral future, you can wake up in new places every morning.
In Bern, a new digital wallet was introduced in which all residents are credited with mobility tokens at the beginning of the year. Tokens are deducted for every kilometre driven, depending on the means of transport and climate impact. Organisations also receive credit according to their area of activity. The tokens are tradable: Those who drive little or in a climate-efficient way save tokens that can be bought by frequent drivers. As a result, energy-efficient means of transport and public transport - now mostly sous terrain - have become even more popular. As a result, streets have been freed up and new pedestrian zones have become a feature of Bern's cityscape.
In the pandemic years of the 1920s, digital communication tools and home offices became the norm. Where people struggled with problems back then, private and professional meetings via hologram are now normality. Global networking promoted remote regions and led to permanent newcomers and many temporary work-aways - Zumdorf, for example, still the smallest village in Switzerland with three inhabitants in 2016, now has up to 6450 inhabitants on a seasonal basis.
In Geneva, individual motorised transport has increased due to the promotion of electric vehicles. When the vehicles are not being driven, they are used to store electricity. Thanks to technological progress and the expansion of climate-neutral energy sources, Switzerland can now easily meet its electricity needs. Wind turbines dominate the landscape and solar panels gleaming in the sun complement the view of the Jet d'eau on Lake Geneva.
