2024-08-31 22:00:17
The new academic year for some 260,000 students in Vienna starts tomorrow. Your safe route to school is a key issue for the city of Vienna, and this of course also applies to cycle path connections. As part of the major cycle offensive, 142 schools have so far been connected to safe and comfortable cycle lanes and cycle paths. “In this way, we are creating conditions that will make it easier, safer and more environmentally friendly for more and more students, parents and educators to access our city’s schools,” said City Councilor Ulli Sima.
The tourism agency also offers additional services such as free cycling lessons and tourism workshops for primary schools, raising awareness about environmentally friendly and climate-friendly travel throughout the year and introducing cycling to young children in a fun way. For example, free cycling training for children is offered every Saturday and Sunday from April to November at four cycling driving ranges.
“As a Progressive Union, it is extremely important for us that students and parents can go to school every day safely and securely. An important factor here is that school locations are easily accessible by bicycle and scooter. With the integration of school routes with Vienna’s bicycle network Connected step by step, our city of Vienna becomes a pioneer in Europe.
Bikeway expansion, including extensive unsealing and greening
“As part of Vienna’s bike lane offensive, we are massively expanding the bike lane network and building approximately 20 kilometers of new bike infrastructure every year to integrate cycling into daily life and further improve the quality of life in our city,” Sima emphasized. The investment amount last year was approximately 35 million euros.
Under the motto “Get rid of asphalt”, road spaces are being redesigned, with new trees, greenery and raised beds and cooling areas added as part of a cycle lane offensive. For example, in Argentinier Straße alone, which is currently being converted into a bicycle street according to the Dutch model, 1,300 square meters of asphalt will be opened, 100 green beds will be built, and 70 new trees will be planted. In Pfeilgasse’s new bicycle street, the school environment has been redesigned, turning parking lots into attractive open spaces for children, including good bicycle path connections.
Highlight education campus vienna nasi
A particularly good example this year is the Anna and Alfred Wödl Education Campus in Vienna’s 14th district. Four new bike lanes have been opened on campus.
The education campus in Penzin, which opened in 2022, has benefited from the bicycle offensive from the very beginning: In 2022, a shared pedestrian and bicycle path was built on Deutschordenstrasse as a direct connection to the school. This year, the cycle path will be extended to Lorenz-Weiß-Gasse to better connect the school with Hugo-Breitner-Hof and the surrounding residential areas on the other side of Hütteldorfer Straße.
At the same time, since 2023, a bicycle path running parallel to the railway and a bicycle path on the Hochsatzengasse ensure connections to the popular Wiental bicycle path and Hietzing.
Also worth mentioning in this regard are the Meiselstrasse cycle path, planned for 2025, and the Hütteldorfer Strasse cycle path, which is already under construction. The cycle axis will connect eight schools in Rudolfsheim-Finfhaus and Penzin to a network of cycle paths.
Innerfavoriten Lighthouse Project – Innerfavoriten Educational Campus
There are lighthouse projects connecting bicycle paths not only in the west of Vienna, but also in the south of Vienna, such as the Innerfavoriten education park in the Neues Landgut urban development area, which opened last year.
In 2022, construction of new two-way cycle lanes on Laxenburger Straße and Landgutgasse began and will be completed this year. This year, Landgutgasse will further create separate cycle paths in the direction of Sonnwendgasse and Herzgasse. This means other residential areas have good and safe connections. The entrance to the school is located in the Elisabeth-Schindler-Gasse pedestrian area.
Also in Favoriten, the new two-way cycle path Herndlgasse-Davidgasse will connect five schools, significantly improving accessibility by closing gaps such as the Sonnwendviertel Education Campus.
Connected to a wide range of schools via the Pfeilgasse cycle path
The new continuous bicycle axis Pfeilgasse-Zeltgasse-Josefsgasse in Josefstadt will directly connect four schools and high-quality bicycle infrastructure. Work on the redesign and traffic calming of the school forecourts at the primary and secondary schools in Pfeilgasse begins in 2022. Under the motto “Get off the asphalt”, the school forecourt in Filgas, including the Lisette model square, was redesigned to become climate-friendly: the teachers’ parking lot became a cool open space. Nine trees, seating areas, large shrubs, six new green spaces with colorful flowers, and a water feature with an in-ground fountain provide additional shade and coolness around the school.
The final redesign of the cycle lane will take place in mid-September and will include climate-friendly greening and pedestrian improvements. The 1.2km long cycle axis will soon join Line 2, providing a good connection from the west of the city to the city centre.
Seeböckgasse – Geblergasse bicycle route to open in 2025
With the launch of the Seeböckgasse and Geblergasse cycle routes this year, eight schools will be connected directly or in the surrounding area to safe and comfortable cycling infrastructure. By autumn 2025, a 2.5-kilometer-long connection will be established between Sandleitengasse and the Belt and Road Initiative, including greening measures.
Routes to school in Währing significantly improved
This year, construction began on a half-kilometre-long two-way bicycle lane on Währinger Straße, closing the gap in the bicycle network between Gersthof and the rest of Währing. He will be able to go on school trips from January next year. 19 new trees will also be planted here and the entire street space will be redesigned to adapt to climate change. Together with the bicycle-friendly street in Schulgasse, traffic conditions have been improved for 11 schools in the area.
Something happened on the left side of the Danube too
The city’s bike lane offensive, together with the Danube City Area Bike Offensive, has improved cycling accessibility for numerous schools across the Danube in Vienna’s largest district. The northern bicycle highway as well as the bicycle paths on Wintzingerodestraße and Donaustadtstraße connect 10 schools, including the Hertha Firnberg School, to the bicycle network.
Planning for 2025 and beyond
In the coming years, the city of Vienna hopes to connect more schools to the improved cycle path network and further improve the safety of school routes. New cycle paths have been launched on the Nordbahnviertel in Leopoldstadt and the Meiselstraße cycle path in Penzing.
“We are already planning further projects for next year and have preliminary plans in place. The more schools that have comfortable, safe cycleway connections, the more attractive cycling will be for students and teachers.
Measures of direct cycleway connections and areas surrounding schools (e.g. pedestrian zones) were used in the statistics.
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