Wettsteinbrücke

Wettsteinbrücke is an important transport route running through Basel, and accommodates broad, separate pedestrian and cycle paths. It is pretty much the quickest connection to bike from Basel Central Station to Kleinbasel. Over 6000 cyclists travel in an out of town along this route each day.

Basel-Stadt merges with the neighbouring communities in Baselbiet, Germany and France to form one huge conurbation – separated only by the national frontiers. Droves of people pass the borders daily, and it’s likely that this cross-border traffic will only increase. An attractive infrastructure is needed to encourage as many people as possible to take public transport. (Laughing) So they’ll be fewer reports of traffic congestion on Basel radio stations!

 
Have you heard that there’s even a tramline that runs across the border?

 
Yes, I have. Until recently, all the trams turned around at the border. Each day, tens of thousands of people heard the familiar call ‘Everybody out!’ … or they simply took their own cars to drive over the border. But that produced daily traffic jams and was an immense burden for the districts on either side of the frontier.

The new tramline number eight started rolling in December 2014: it is the first cross-border tramline, and it runs from Basel to Weil am Rhein in Germany. The new line allows people to travel across the border, connecting many residents of greater Basel with the public transport network. The aim is to reduce a lot of traffic running through the city. The tri-regional tram and bus network will see further expansion by 2020. The next step is likely to involve a tramline crossing into St Louis, France.

 
The residents of Basel are innovative and industrious in their attempts to create a 2000-watt society. We have two other ideas we would like to present here.

Does this sound familiar? You need a tent or a sledge maybe once a year. A high-pressure cleaner perhaps every eight months. And sometimes years will pass without you needing an electric drill! Yet still we keep all these tools and appliances in our own households. It costs a lot of energy and produces harmful emissions manufacturing each one of these items. The Basel-based association ‘pumpipumpe’ is committed to the responsible use of this kind of consumer appliance, which it promotes under the motto ‘Sharing makes sense’. ‘E Pumpi pumpe’ – the phrase means something like ‘to borrow a bicycle pump’. The association brings together generous neighbours who are willing to lend all kinds of different possessions. Not anonymously via the Internet, but by leaving notes in letter boxes. It’s the idea of being a good neighbour.

 
The ‘reparierBar’ in the Wettstein district is also a great place to socialise and join in the spirit of good deeds. These days, people just discard broken items and buy new ones.

A bicycle puncture? A skateboard with a wobbly wheel? An MP3 player or mobile telephone that just won’t work? In many cases we do not have the knowledge of the skills to repair devices. reparierBar is a place for people of different ages and from different cultures to get together. They are all volunteers who enjoy tinkering. Naturally, they have the necessary skills as well. Many of these items can be repaired quite easily and will remain useful. Often for years. The production of each object that we buy uses up resources and causes emissions. Repair and keep in use – well, that is a substantial and valuable contribution to climate protection!

 
Exactly! I’ve got an interesting example here: we can really cut back on the use of resources and energy, and the production of CO2 if we buy second-hand products. myclimate once conducted a study on behalf of the online platform tutti.ch with the aim of calculating the total reduction in CO2 emissions thanks to trade in second-hand products.

 
Oh, probably a lot!

 
Yes, quite a bit. Sales of second-hand products on the tutti.ch platform helped prevent at least 47,600 tonnes of CO2 emissions in 2014 alone. That’s equivalent to the annual electricity consumption of 85,000 Swiss households or 20,000 return flights from Zurich to New York.

 
The tour will now move on to the other side of Central Station. You can walk the distance in around 15 minutes. Alternatively, you can take tram no. 2 from the Kunstmuseum stop here at the end of Wettsteinbrücke; it will bring you to Central Station. From there you take tram no. 16 next to the railway exit Gundeldingen. Get off at Tellplatz and from there it will take you roughly three minutes on foot.