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Winter sports enthusiasts clog up the Prättigau at the weekend. A community fought back – now the federal government is reacting.
The car avalanche rolls through the Prättigau for kilometers. Snow sports enthusiasts and day trippers from the lowlands, they all go up into the mountains when the weather is nice and return home at the same time on Sunday evening. As a result, the through road from Davos to Landquart is regularly congested and some drivers therefore switch to the narrow villages along the through road – much to the annoyance of the villages.
That’s why the municipality of Schiers took matters into its own hands last weekend. With reference to the municipal autonomy, she quickly blocked the Schiers exit to prevent alternative traffic. The reason given was that this was the only way access to the village could be granted for the ambulance and fire brigade.
Action was illegal
Since it is the exit of a national road, the action raised a lot of waves. The civil engineering office of Graubünden, the cantonal police and the Federal Roads Office got involved, studying laws and regulations for days. Now they come to the conclusion: the action was illegal. The community has therefore received a reprimand from the Federal Roads Office and the cantonal police of Graubünden: the Schiers exit may no longer be closed by hand, despite the traffic jam.
But it was still worth it for Mayor Ueli Thöny: “Our campaign was also a wake-up call. Neither the civil engineering office nor the Astra want such actions to expand. So now they have to act.”
Village center may be blocked
The cantonal police of the community are a little accommodating. “In the event of heavy traffic and backlogs, the access, i.e. the cantonal road to Schiers in the center of the village, can be closed,” says Anita Senti, head of communications for the Graubünden cantonal police. After all, Schiers has a hospital and the village center is so narrow that vehicles can hardly cross there.
Mayor Ueli Thöny, however, is already hatching new ideas to get the traffic under control. He has a dosage in mind, a droplet system. “We’re checking whether we can let cars through in groups east of the village. That way we don’t have traffic jams through the village.”