Freeways Demonstrations against highway expansion in western Switzerland

Around a thousand people demonstrated in Lausanne and Geneva on Saturday against the expansion of the Swiss highway network. The planned expansion will be put to the vote on November 24. There were already demonstrations in German-speaking Switzerland at the end of August.

According to estimates by the organizers, 500 people took part in the demonstrations in each of the two cities. The police estimated this figure at 250 for Lausanne and 200 for Geneva. The demonstration was decorated with posters, people in dinosaur costumes and loudspeakers playing highway sounds.

Like any new freeway infrastructure, the expansion of freeways would only generate more traffic and bring it into towns and villages, wrote the environmental organization Umverkehr in a communiqué. Widening freeways would mean more noise, pollution, nuisance and damage to health. These lead to higher costs in the area of public health.

SDA