This year the 13th Austrian Bicycle Summit is in Vienna! In early April, there will be bike excursions on the second day in the morning: For everyone who wants to inform themselves on the spot what is happening for cycling in the capital. >>> Register
Eleven guides, eight cycling excursions:
All new – brownfields become Neighbourhoods
The city is growing!? The number of people is growing, but Vienna’s urban space is limited. 25,000 students have been given a new campus – with 55,000 square metres of public open space. A cycling path with 1,000 bicycle parking spaces frames the new campus of the Viennese university of economics and business. In the neighboring district, everyday life meets event locations. Neu Marx offers space for living and working. In the evening, its event halls open for around 10,000 guests.
With the new event hall, there will be three times as many. Vienna is developing its brownfields: Abandoned industrial sites and unused areas are being turned into urban districts. Integrated into the older urban neighbourhoods, they invite people to be actively mobile. Experience how multifaceted Vienna has developed and changed in recent years!
Guided by Wolfgang Dvorak – retired, until 2019 City of Vienna, Urban Development and Urban Planning (MA18), Head of Public Relations Department
Bridges connect
The railroad leads us into the future. But its tracks also separate entire city districts from one another. Bridges connect and create short distances yet again: Like the Arsenal Bridge, a 9-meter-wide path for cyclists and pedestrians, as well as the Südbahnhofbrücke, opened in spring 2019, which offers a barrier-free path for cyclists and pedestrians to crossing from the 10th district to the 3rd district.
The different stages of development of the cycling infrastructure are clearly visible in the developed and new urban neighbourhoods of Favoriten. The Ankerbrotfabrik and Kempelenpark also show different ways of dealing with the existing spatial potential. Experience the diversity of Favoriten and change perspectives!
Guided by Francesco Remonato – Smarter Than Car (STC), activist and Georg Wieser – Smarter Than Car (STC), activist
Rattled and shaken – playful cycling
Riding a slalom, mastering rails, crossing a vibrating track – the Kaisermühlen »Bicycle Motor Skills Park« with 17 stations offers all of this. The joy of moving and learning through play prepares children for road traffic: Because if you have your own bike under control, your head is free to perceive what’s going on around you. You can also practice your skills on unicycles, scooters, skateboards, inline skates or wheelchairs.
Free of charge and usable without supervision from the age of 8, the first Bicycle Motor Skills Park on 800 square meters is ready to use since the end of September 2020. The City of Vienna and the Donaustadt district shared the costs. It was initiated by citizens in the district laboratory. The »bicycle playground« concept, based on the Danish model, which won two awards at the Vienna Business Agency 2018, was the inspiration for it. The mobility agency offers open accompanied trainings here. Experience what playful cycling feels like!
Guided by Alec Hager – Die Radvokat:innen, cycling expert, head of cycling school »FahrSicherRad«, he created the concept for bicycle playgrounds in Austria
Opening one-way streets – short distances through the city
Whether narrow or wide – there is always a solution! On the main cycle route, in the narrow alley, in the shared space. A solution to open one-way lanes of motor vehicle traffic for people on bicycles to ride in both directions. In the Neubau district, the subway construction was used to redesign the streets. Cooling measures were also taken to ensure a pleasant feeling of well-being and to prevent summer heat build-up.
The Viennese Cycling Association watches over it and is committed to bike-promoting redesign throughout the city. The goal is to open all one-way streets for cyclists in both directions! Because short and legal routes through the city encourage people to cycle more. Experience the solutions and be inspired to find new ones time and again!
Guided by Ines Ingerle – Radlobby Vienna, Head of Public Relations and Roland Romano – Radlobby Vienna, focus on infrastructure and transport policy, Spokesperson of the Radlobby
Go for Gold – diverse Goldschlagstraße
It was the first! In 2015, it received the »Golden Spoke« from the Viennese Cycling Association as the first inner-city bicycle street. The Goldschlagstraße offers almost everything that promotes active mobility: bicycle street, bike paths through urban nature and residential streets. A shared space adds up to this diversity. In between, the one-way street turns directions and alternates with conventional street. Bicycle traffic flows in both directions, protected by max. 30 kph.
New things require new solutions: On the 3 km long street in the west of Vienna, a traffic light with bicycle detection and a diagonal lock for motor vehicle traffic, which is permeable to bicycles, ensures safety. Experience the diversity for active mobility!
Guided by Clemens Moritz Polacek – City of Vienna, Traffic Organization and Technical
Traffic Affairs (MA46), Specialist for Cycling Infrastructure
New bike path favourite – radial, ideal and real!
Up to six meters of space for cycling, three meters in each direction. There is room for bicycles here, in the south of Favoriten. Vienna’s largest cycle path project so far sets new standards! 15 kph as average speed, made possible by: wide curves, clarity, priority and space to overtake. These are the criteria for long-distance cycling routes, the new radials for cycling which connect the city center and the surroundings of the city.
An outskirts shows what is possible and necessary. Since cycling can be anything and everything at the same time: exercising, relaxing and moving quickly. Completed in 2018 as part of the construction of the subway, the Favoritenstraße is particularly inviting: for commuting by bike and for imitation elsewhere. Experience the future as it could be in many places!
Guided by Thomas Berger – City of Vienna, Urban Development and Planning (MA18), Department
Mobility Strategies, General Cycling Planning
Make room in our streets – for encounter and life!
It is No. 11 in Vienna – and yet not the youngest anymore! The shared space on Roten- turmstraße. Eight years after the amendment to the Highway Code and six years after the most famous – the Mariahilfer Straße – opened, the shared space convinced many, including the Chamber of Commerce. It convinced with equal rights for everyone, a level sur- face across the entire street width and speed protection of max. 20 kph.
At peak times up to 60,000 people visit Rotenturmstraße every day. Active mobility revives. It revives streets and squares, since it generally offers more space for trees, benches and fountains. Herrengasse opened in 2016 as the first shared space in the first district, privately initiated and financed. Experience reunited traffic, including and reviving everyone!
Guided by Clarissa Knehs – City of Vienna, Architecture and Urban Design (MA19), District Officer and one of the 5 women who designed Rotenturmstrasse
Redistributed: Car lanes become bike lanes
At the beginning of May 2020, the first pop-up bikelane opened on Praterstraße, heading out of the city on the right car lane. Now the time is ripe to make it permanent with good planning and high standards for cycling: The cycle lane will be widened to 4 metres in 2023 – less noise and exhaust fumes invite people to linger, which also supports the shops and gastronomy.
One million cyclists – that’s how many were on Lassallestraße in 2021 – will get more space, the cycle path here will also be widened to 4 metres. – This will expand this important cycling axis from the inner city to the Danube Island and the Donaustadt. The way back leads via Am Tabor – over Vienna’s first protected bike lane. Experience how road space can be distributed more fairly!
Guided by Angelika Winkler – City of Vienna, Urban Development and Urban Planning (MA18), Deputy Head of Department and Head of the Department for Mobility Strategies and Julius Holländer – Mobility Agency Vienna, Mobility Management
My role in the project
On behalf of the Mobility Agency Vienna, I curated the bike summit excursions with them, coordinated them with the guides and wrote the texts.