Commute times in Zürich
[Romeo Valentin] - - 2 mins read
A recent article in the “Neue Züricher Zeitung” claims that Zürich public transport is “only” about twice the walking speed, and slower than biking.
To make up my own mind, I have evaluated some of my common trips for all three modes of transportation, using google maps. Note that some trips start with “bike”, which is me biking to the train station, which saves about 6 minutes. I have recorded it as I typically travel – e.g. I don’t bike to the train station when I go to the airport.
| Trip from home to… | ÖV (mins) | bike (mins) | foot (mins) | ÖV Comment | ÖV / bike | ÖV / foot |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| friend | 25 | 31 | 99 | bike & train | 0.81 | 0.25 |
| another friend | 30 | 38 | 109 | bike & train &tram | 0.79 | 0.28 |
| main station | 13 | 21 | 65 | bike & train | 0.62 | 0.20 |
| nice coffe shop | 19 | 17 | 48 | foot & tram | 1.12 | 0.40 |
| Chinawiese | 48 | 32 | 105 | foot & 2x tram | 1.50 | 0.46 |
| ETH Zentrum | 25 | 23 | 70 | bike & tram | 1.09 | 0.36 |
| ETH Höng | 17 | 21 | 50 | foot & bus | 0.81 | 0.34 |
| UZH Irchel | 25 | 18 | 45 | foot & tram | 1.39 | 0.56 |
| Airport | 25 | 24 | 81 | foot & train | 1.04 | 0.31 |
| Median ratio: | 1.04 | 0.34 |
Note that I have not omitted any trips to doctor the data. So for my day-to-day life I can conclude that taking public transport or the bike is about the same, and consistently about 3x as fast as walking.