Warning Your Friends to Slow Down May Cost You!; Swiss Voters Reject World's Highest Minimum Wage; Referendum on Fighter Jets says "Nein"; Basel Public Transport Passengers Grow Again

Zurich cantonal police recently fined a woman 1,000 francs ($1,125) for posting information on her Facebook page about where a particular speed trap was located, the Zwanzig Minuten newspaper reported online on last week.

Cantonal police confirmed that the case was not isolated.

“We regularly come across warnings of this kind on social media networks,” police spokesman Stefan Oberlin told the newspaper.

Zurich city police said they also scan sites such as Facebook or Twitter to look for people making public information about speed camera sites.

Since 2013, publicizing the whereabouts of speed traps has been illegal in Switzerland after a change in the laws governing roads and highways.

However, Zwanzig Minuten says the regulation is unclear.

It states that issuing “public warnings to road users concerning official traffic control devices” is punishable by a fine.

But the definition of “public” can be interpreted in different ways, the newspaper said.

Daniel Schnyder, a spokesman from the Zurich cantonal police force, said that a public statement is one that addresses more than 50 people.

“These days, everyone has more than 50 friends among their contacts,” he told 20 Minutes.

Of course, that may not be the case if you are an expat newly arrived in the country.

Thomas Rohrbach, spokesman for the federal highways office stressed that judges must evaluate each situation on a case-by-case basis.

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The AFP News Service Reports a proposal to introduce a minimum wage so high it could pass for mid-management pay elsewhere, was rejected by 76,3 percent of Swiss voters. The massive rejection of the "Decent Salary" initiative was widely seen as a slap in the face to its union backers, who insist at least 22 francs ($25) an hour, or 4,000 francs ($4,515, 3,280 euros) a month, is needed to get by in Switzerland.     If it had passed, Switzerland would have gone from having no national minimum wage to boasting the world's highest, far above the $7.25 in the United States and 9.43 euros in France. But the initiative flopped as voters heeded warnings from government and other opponents that it would deal a death blow to many businesses and would weaken Switzerland's healthy economy.     Swiss Economy Minister Johann Schneider-Ammann hailed the result, saying the country had dodged a bullet.     Introducing the minimum wage, he told reporters, would have led to "layoffs" and made it "more difficult for people with few qualifications to find a job."     Farmers, small business owners and employer organizations also welcomed the results.     While disappointed, Alessandro Pelizzari of the Unia union's Geneva chapter insisted the campaign itself had had a very positive effect.     "We have never before seen in Switzerland so many companies raising employee salaries to 4,000 Swiss francs as over the past months," he told AFP, listing the Aldi and Lidle supermarket chains, as well as fashion giants H&M and Bata.     Supporters of the minimum wage said it would have boosted the purchasing power of some 330,000 people.

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According to the AFP news Service 53.4 percent of voters balked at releasing the 3.1 billion francs ($3.5 billion) needed to purchase the 22 planes from Sweden's Saab, according to official referendum results.

Polls ahead of the referendum predicted that voters would turn down the government plan, which called for the new fighter jets to replace the Swiss Air Force's ageing fleet of 54 F-5 Tiger aircraft to defend Switzerland's air space.

Citizens from French-speaking Switzerland were the biggest opponents of the deal.

Voters in Neuchâtel, for example, voted 69 percent against, while those from Geneva, 67 percent.

Almost 55 percent voted against the Swedish jets in the Italian-speaking canton of Ticino.

Support for the planes was strongest in German-speaking cantons, but a majority opposed their purchase in Zurich (51.4 percent) and Basel City (67.7 percent).

Critics argued Switzerland does not need new fighter jets and warned they could end up costing far more than the country bargained for.     The government, meanwhile, has for months been playing up the importance of the new planes for Swiss security.     "This decision will create a security gap," warned Swiss Defence Minister Ueli Maurer, the deal's biggest champion.     He told reporters an in depth analysis of the new situation was needed, but acknowledged: "We don't have a Plan B."

Maurer, who came under criticism for not piloting the government plan successfully, said the "no" vote was "was a defeat for the federal government and parliament — for me also."

The Swiss People's Party politician, however, said he could very easily live with the referendum result.

"In my life, I've experienced more defeats than victories," he told Swiss media.

Sweden's Saab also voiced disappointment, but not surprise.     "When you do business with Switzerland, you know exactly what you have in store," company spokesman Peter Larsson told the TT news agency.     "You have to respect their decision making model, and I think the company management included that in its calculations," he said.

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The Basel-Land Transport AG also known as the BLT carried 1.9 percent more passengers in 2013 than in the prior year.  Most of the passenger growth is attributable to increased tram usage throughout the service area of the BLT.

Within the tram system, passenger traffic growth, as expected by anyone using the crowded system lately can attest was concentrated in the #10 and 11 lines.  Overall, 41.6 million rides were delivered using the trams and 10.2 million on buses last year.

Managers at the BLT were pleased with the results, especially in light of the major construction work that was done during the summer of 2013 on the central #11 line, and to the roads used by almost all of the buses.  According to surveys conducted by the organization, the attractiveness of Public Transport did suffer among riders, but they were not deterred as evidenced by the growth in demand.

Overall, the BLT also reported that its finances were also in good shape, with growth in revenues, profits and a fully funded pension, all the while increased spending on renovations and maintenance.