City of Salzburg – “Salzburg is rising”
Your route – your city – your lifestyle. Cycling begins in the mind.
These slogans adorn the first pages of the 2022 cycling report presented today, April 20, 2022, by Deputy Mayor Barbara Unterkofler and City Councilor Martina Berthold.
Salzburg at the top compared to Austria
“Our first cycling report is impressive! It is inventory and outlook rolled into one. With the 195 km long network of cycle paths created so far, Salzburg is at the top in Austria. But we still have to close gaps and, above all, make the cycle paths wider and safer. That was also a requirement from the bicycle survey. The experienced mobility experts from the University of Salzburg and the South Tyrolean agency Helios have now analyzed the results and summarized them in the report,” says the client and head of the building department, Martina Berthold.
“And now it’s time to keep pedaling hard and expand the cycling infrastructure in our city step by step!”
20 percent increase in cycling traffic
“The cycling strategy is an integral part of Salzburg’s overall transport strategy and serves as a role model throughout Austria. Since it came into effect, it has shaped and shaped the cycling culture in the city. I am all the happier to have been in charge of launching this strategy in 2017 as department head. Our declared goal is to increase the proportion of bicycle traffic by 20%. In order to master this feat of strength, the focus is primarily on expanding the infrastructure. Closing the large gaps along the defined main cycle network, above all the east-west axis, has priority. In addition, the structurally separate cycle paths are of the greatest importance,” says Deputy Mayor Barbara Unterkofler, who is responsible for the planning department.
Collected basic data on commuter and traffic flows are the key to planning and expansion decisions in order to implement the measures with the greatest impact.
“That’s why the structurally separate footpath and cycle path along the Innsbruck federal highway was decided as a major project with a special budgetary endowment during this period of office. Our planning has been completed, we are currently just waiting for the implementation to come a big step closer to the target of 24% cycling.”
Your route – on the move on new paths
From the beginning of the 1990s until 2021, the network of paths was expanded from approx. 127 km to 188 km (+47%) in total length as part of the promotion of cycling. The legal introduction of the bicycle street brings a further improvement in quality and new, around seven kilometers of cyclist-friendly routes in the city area. The cycle path network thus covers a total length of 195 kilometers and the road network around 560 kilometers.
Your city – on the pulse of the Salzburg population
In addition to looking back into the past and looking ahead to the future, numbers, data and facts are also used to look at the present.
Together with internal experts from the University of Salzburg and the Italian agency Helios.bz (with a focus on sustainability and mobility), the opinion on cycling was collected as part of the bicycle mobility survey by Municipal Department 6 and interesting focal points were presented in the cycling report.
Automatic bicycle counting systems help to assess cycling behavior depending on the season, the day of the week or the weather. They provide a realistic picture of cycling events as a basis for demand-oriented planning.
“The corona pandemic has left its mark on people’s mobility behavior over the past two years. Phenomena such as the lack of tourists and students in the city as well as lockdowns and home office regulations are easy to read using the Giselakai counting points as an example,” Günther Innerbner from the agency Helios.bz.
Your lifestyle – shift up a gear
Martin Loidl from the University of Salzburg knows that the topic of bicycle mobility also plays an important role in the Salzburg research landscape:
“Not so long ago, bicycle mobility was considered a niche in academic research. In the meantime, several university and non-university research groups in Salzburg have dealt with sociological, technical, psychological and planning or medical aspects of bicycle mobility, as it is considered to be the best framework for a sustainable to create a mobility system. And it turns out that it’s often the small changes that have a big impact.”
Which services are available to people in the city in addition to the 16 self-service stations offered everywhere can be found both in the bike report and in digital form (“interactive PDF” – ShortLink) on the homepage of the city of Salzburg. Furthermore, the bike report will also be presented by the experts from departments MA 5 (planning) and MA 6 (construction) on Friday, April 22nd. and Saturday 23.4. presented at Domplatz and Residenzplatz when it says again:
Finally cycling spring again.