Well, I recently watched a small restaurant get robbed at gunpoint. It took the police ~15-20 minutes to arrive because they had to drive from downtown. Cars allow a single officer to service a much larger radius, which unfortunately in this case meant that the city simply hired fewer police officers, resulting in little net benefit.<p>By the time the officer arrived the thief was probably in his living room counting the money because he himself drove off with the aid of an accomplice waiting outside.<p>The situation you describe in Zermatt sounds like an interesting compromise, though.