Basic information about parking in Switzerland:

Parking in Swiss villages and towns
Parking in villages and smaller towns is usually easy. However, in the inner cities of larger cities, the traffic situation can be complex. There are narrow streets, many one-way streets and sometimes traffic jams - and there are relatively few parking spaces. So check in advance which parking options are best for your stay. If you want to visit larger city centers, you can alternatively drive to a smaller town, park your car at the P+Rail station and continue your journey by train.

Free parking
Free parking is usually available in towns outside the center and in villages. There are individual rules depending on shopping centers, hotel parking lots (for guests only) or simply on the street. Sometimes there are time limits and a parking disc is required by law. Such parking discs are available in the place of residence with the corresponding long-term parking such as blue zones or white zones.

Parking in blue zones with a parking disc
Blue parking zones are marked with blue street parking spaces and street signs. You can park there for free if you use a parking disc. The use of a disc is mandatory. Make sure you have a valid parking disc placed in your car behind the window. It must be blue and at least 11 cm wide and 15 cm high. Other variants are invalid. The disc can also be used in other countries, e.g. in Germany. Rental cars should have a disc.

How to use parking discs in Switzerland:

• Enter the arrival time: turn the disc to the nearest half hour. For example: if you arrive at 10:10, turn the parking disc to 10:30.
• Place the disc on the dashboard and make sure it is clearly visible from outside.
• Depart no later than one hour after the indicated arrival time. In this example, you should leave at 11:30. Depending on the location, you can park for different lengths of time.

PS: You are not allowed to return to your car to change your arrival tim and thus park longer.

Paid parking
Paid parking is very common in Switzerland, especially near popular locations such as train stations, hotels and city centers. Even hotel guests often have to pay for a parking space separately: expect to pay CHF 10 to 50 per day. Parking in the larger cities is quite expensive: up to CHF 4 per hour.There are several ways to pay:
- Hotel guests can pay their parking costs when they check out.There are ticket machines in parking garages. - Before you leave, enter your parking ticket that you received when you entered. You can pay in cash or by debit or credit card.
- In many parking lots you will find parking meters. The older versions require Swiss coins. However, many are digital. You enter the number of your parking space and pay either in cash or by debit/credit card.
- In more and more parking lots you can use an app to pay that is linked to your credit card or bank account. You enter your parking space and the length of time you will be parked. Examples of parking apps used in Switzerland are Park Now, ParkingPay, EasyPark, SEPP Parking and TWINT.

Parking at train stations
There are (often paid) parking spaces at 550 SBB train stations. You can choose a location in advance and pay by credit card via the SBB website or with the SBB P+Rail app. You can either buy day tickets or pay by the hour. Note that many, but not all, train parking spaces are included in the SBB app and that paying in advance does not guarantee that a parking space will actually be available. Your payment is therefore not a reservation. Monthly or annual subscriptions for specific train stations are also available. You must buy these at the station ticket counter.

blick.ch

Blue zone, white fields, yellow lines

The parking guide
Did you know that a tire parked outside the parking space can cost you a fine of 1250 francs? BLICK tells you how to park correctly in which zones! And where you should avoid it.
White zone is less and less often referred to as "as long as you want": more and more communities now have a parking regime.
When it comes to parking meters, the situation in the white zone is clear: the regulations are always on the machine or signs.
Yellow fields are privately owned. Here you have to pay attention to the signs - for example "customers" or "visitors".
You come to your supposedly correctly parked car - and are annoyed: 40 or more francs fine! Let's be honest: who knows whether tires are allowed to touch the parking space line or that there is an extension to the lunch break in the blue zone?
And what do crossed yellow lines mean? The "BLICK" parking guide explains.

White fields are often misleading
On parking meters it is clear: maximum duration, price and free periods are written on them. And if the machine is broken? Insert the parking disc and note the maximum duration. It is tricky where there are none: because a white field does not mean "free parking". Long-term parking on public land requires a permit. The only difference is that in the past almost all municipalities did not require permits. Today, however, even rural municipalities have parking regulations.

Long-term and overnight parkers usually require a permit, while short-term parkers (such as at motorway service stations) require a parking disc. So far, so unclear: the regulations vary enormously and are often poorly signposted. For example, there is only a sign at the entrance to the village stating that a parking disc is required (e.g. "maximum six hours") - which is quickly overlooked. At night, rules such as "twice a month without a permit" can apply - which you only find out about on the community website. Weekend visitors are promptly fined.

So why aren't white spaces that require a parking disc blue? Because the Blue Zone - see below - is regulated uniformly: if the spaces were blue, the Blue Zone regulations would apply.

Our tip: ask residents and look out for permits or parking discs in other cars. Or surf: permits are usually available online. If in doubt, put the parking disc on, which reduces the likelihood of a fine in the first few hours.

The Blue Zone is confusing
The Blue Zone, which is uniform throughout Switzerland, also has its pitfalls and a lunch break rule that almost nobody knows about. From 7 p.m. to 7:59 a.m. and on Sundays and equivalent public holidays, you can park here for an unlimited amount of time (of course only if nothing else is indicated). From Monday to Saturday from 8 a.m. to 6:59 p.m., depending on your arrival time, you can park for one hour, up to 89 minutes, with a parking disc.
An important, surprisingly often unknown exception is the lunch break extension: anyone who arrives between 11:30 a.m. and 1:29 p.m. can stay until 2:30 p.m.!
By the way, the parking disc is often set incorrectly - see below.

On the line costs
Whether white or blue: the whole car must be parked in the field, neither the bumper nor the outside mirror may protrude beyond it. "In itself" because: Because cars are growing, it is usually (not always!) tolerated if only the wheels are inside. Attention: If the tires are on the line instead of inside, this is already considered "outside"!
Absurd, but true: "Within the line" is also mandatory if the car is simply too big or you would no longer be able to get out if the wheels are correctly inside. Then you have to maneuver or look for another parking space.
How much can it cost if the bikes are parked a hand's breadth outside, for example? 1250 francs! That's what happened to a Zurich resident who parked like that for over ten hours despite having a resident's parking permit - because then it doesn't cost 40, 60 or 100 francs depending on how long it takes, but instead gets reported. After three days, he was fined a whopping 700 francs plus 550 francs in fees.

Set the parking disc correctly
Parking time is often wasted by setting the parking disc incorrectly. The "hand" should be set to the half-hour or hour mark following the arrival time. If you arrive between 00 and 29 minutes, set it to the next half-hour mark, and if you arrive between 30 and 59 minutes, set it to the next hour mark. The parking disc must be clearly visible.
If you do not use an official disc, you can be fined. Advertising on the front or a parking disc that is too small (at least 11 cm wide and 15 cm high) can cost 40 francs.
If you move your car in the blue zone after the time has elapsed, instead of driving away and leaving the blue zone, you will be fined the same as if you had reset the parking disc: 40 francs.

Yellow usually means yes and no
Yellow zigzags (e.g. public transport stops), yellow lines interrupted by crosses and yellow fields with a yellow diagonal cross (e.g. taxi ranks) mean: no parking! You can legally stop here, i.e. let people get in and out or load and unload, as long as you don't hinder anyone. But: parking is taboo - and that has nothing to do with how long it takes. If you wait for someone in a no-parking zone, walk away with the unloaded goods or walk away from the car, you are parking.
You are not allowed to stop or park when there are continuous yellow lines at the edge. And yellow fields without a cross? These are private, the signs apply here (e.g. "customers").

Only on the left in exceptional cases
You usually have to park (and stop) on the right-hand edge. It is only allowed on the left (i.e. on the opposite side) in exceptional cases: in one-way streets, when there is a no-stopping or no-parking sign on the right or tram tracks on the right-hand side, and in narrow streets with little traffic. In all other cases, you have to turn around first because driving away from the opposite side is dangerous.

Additional fines for hazard lights
It may be that the hazard lights encourage tolerance when parking incorrectly or stopping illegally on purpose - the message is "Just for a moment!". But: it is not permitted and can result in an additional fine of 40 francs.

Survey among drivers

This annoys us when parking
Switzerland is a special case even when it comes to parking. According to a survey by the Easypark app across Europe, we are the only ones who are annoyed by the permitted parking time being too short. We pay parking fines more often - and, as a precaution, often even spend more than we should.

According to a survey by Easypark, drivers across Europe find it particularly annoying when parking to search for a space and narrow parking spaces. Looking for a parking space, manoeuvring into it, barely being able to get out because of the "stupid parker" next door, paying a small fortune (in Zurich, for example, 9.50 francs for 3 hours) and later getting a fine for three minutes: parking is annoying. But what is most annoying? The Swedish parking app provider Easypark wanted to know exactly and had Yougov survey over 16,000 people in 14 European countries - including Switzerland and its neighboring countries.

Usually three to ten minutes of searching
Across Europe, all respondents were particularly annoyed by the search for a parking space and narrow parking spaces. France is a special case: only here is the fact that you have to pay for parking at all ranked first. According to the survey, the search for a parking space in Switzerland takes three to ten minutes in about half of the cases, and in ten percent even longer. Cost per month? 42 percent of people in this country spend up to ten francs per month on parking and another 30 percent between ten and 50 francs. In Germany and Austria, the third most annoying parking annoyance is the poor parking of other drivers, while in Switzerland - the only country where this is in the top three - the limited parking time.

There are more fines in Switzerland
This is probably also due to the tighter surveillance. So it is not surprising that, according to the survey, parking fines are issued more frequently in Switzerland than elsewhere. In our country, 48 percent of respondents said they received a parking fine every two years, 18 percent annually or more often and only 34 percent never. In Germany, for example, the number of never fines is 42 percent. Hard to believe: Out of fear of fines, 54 percent even say that they sometimes deliberately put too much money into the parking meter as a precaution!In keeping with Easypark's spirit, the survey also shows that drivers are happy about digital helpers like those in the Easypark app. They mention a parking space search function (available in Zurich, for example) or app features such as automated billing, minute-by-minute payment or remote parking time extension.Incidentally, the large Blick parking guide provides an overview of all parking rules.

Now the canton even has to pay the driver's lawyer!

Crazy parking dispute in Zurich
Success for a Zurich driver who fought against a parking fine of 40 francs. The Federal Court has decided that the canton even has to pay his lawyer.

The parking ticket was stuck under his windshield wiper in March 2020: 40 francs gone

It had rained very heavily that day. Perhaps that was why the parking ticket was not visible, he argued. The city police, however, did not want to hear of it and sent him three reminders in the months that followed.

When the penalty order came, he hired a lawyer
The driver filed two objections to the fine during this time. Eleven months after the parking tickets were issued, he finally received mail from the city court: a penalty order for not displaying the parking ticket. When he received it, he hired a lawyer. The lawyer wrote a professional objection, after which the criminal proceedings were suddenly discontinued. The driver then demanded that the state pay for this lawyer. The Zurich Higher Court was against it. After all, this was a minor offense that did not even result in an entry in the criminal record. The case was by no means so complex that a lawyer was necessary, according to the Higher Court.

Federal Court rules in favor of driver
The Federal Court, however, has a different opinion, as can be seen from the ruling published on Friday. It was legitimate for the man to have hired a lawyer. He had to assume that his options as a layperson had been exhausted. The case now goes back to the Zurich Higher Court. This must decide how much money the man will receive from the state treasury for his lawyer. (SDA)Judgment 6B_1472/2021