6 months car-free in Salzburg: an interim balance
“But how do you go shopping then?”
Since July 2022, the Floras have not had a car. With a lead time of a few months, we switched to cycling and got serious about it in the middle of last year. There were a lot of opinions and even more questions about this decision in advance: How do you go shopping? How do you visit the parents? How do you get from A to B? How is that supposed to work with children? All good questions, as we find. And liability, there’s now a small interim balance of six months without a car in Salzburg.
First of all, maybe one more piece of information: In our case, work and home are a five-minute walk away from each other. Our sphere of activity is 100 percent integrated in the city of Salzburg. And we like to ride bikes.
#1 Not having a car in Salzburg is inconvenient
The summer months in Salzburg were simply wonderful. Cycle along the Salzach in the morning. Stop in front of a shop, get off, lock it up and don’t have to pay a 25 euro fine – wonderful. Cycling in summer and autumn is exhausting (because it is physical activity) but very rewarding (because it feels good). This dream state was maintained until the end of November, when the first (and last?) snow came. Various diseases have put cycling on hold and heralded the arduous life. Without a bike, Salzburg is uncomfortable, tedious and requires a lot of energy. And we often wished we could just get into the car and queue up in a traffic jam with heated seats. Oh well.
>>> Already read: 10 things I hate about cycling in Salzburg <<
#2 We cycle about 300 kilometers per month
With the bike as the main means of transport, you quickly cover a considerable number of kilometers. In our case, that’s about 14 kilometers a day (up to 20 on busy days) and at least five days a week. So, excluding the weekends, we rode about 300 kilometers a month in the lower legs. It was about an hour a day, which corresponds to a calorie turnover of 200 to 800 calories (we don’t know exactly how fast we were). We say it openly: We haven’t lost anything, and we haven’t gained any weight either. If you convert the whole thing into kilometer allowance for the bike, we come up with 0.38 euros per kilometer per month to 114 euros per person, which can be used to reduce taxes. Also nothing.
#3 Two quick crashes, one real crash
If you cycle a lot, you have a good chance of an accident – at least in Salzburg. Especially on certain stretches, the only thing that helps is hope and fear for your own life. We’re talking here about the Sterneckstrasse with its blood-red bike lane in the middle of the lane. Or from many areas in fiefdom. Or actually from all roads that CANNOT be reached via the Salzach cycle paths. It would have gotten us twice quickly and once actually: once on Vogelweiderstraße, where we shifted our bikes on the sidewalk when a car hit us on the hood at a parking lot exit. Only touched, nothing happened, but one of us was already sitting upstairs. Once on the Salzach, where a person in a parked car near the Mülln S-Bahn station simply ripped open the door and we quickly ducked in. And once in the Stadtwerk, where Eva was run over by a moped driver while crossing a zebra crossing in the middle of the protection path. Even the hospital was necessary. Cycling in Salzburg is not safe.
When we arrive at our destination after a short bike ride, we are relaxed and balanced. Driving through the city of Salzburg in a traffic jam has exactly the opposite effect.
#4 Those who travel by bus practice pure stoicism
Because the bike takes a break during the winter months, we increasingly use public transport. Outside the city it works perfectly. In the direction of Tennengau, for example, the connection is great and there are no problems. On the contrary: Public transport is often faster than driving. In the city it’s a completely different thing: due to a lack of drivers, the bus frequency changes more often than we would like. Some buses just don’t come, some bus drivers (!) are annoyed and drive away if you stand in front of the door and press the opening button. Most of the time, the buses we need only run every 15 to 20 minutes anyway, and then we have to wait. What we learned: Always have a book with you in your backpack. Bus time is lifetime.
#5 Much cheaper
We put down about 300 euros per month for the leasing rate of our car. In addition, a good 100 euros of petrol, the vignette, service, tire changes and storage. parking fees and minor accidents. Makes about 5,800 euros per year. With the Salzburg climate ticket, we cover a whole year for 365 euros per person. And even though we bought some really good bike stuff (Patagonia rain outfit, different helmets, gloves, lights, etc.), there are several thousand euros left over for other things. Incidentally, our bikes are repaired at Carla Velorep, which is located around the corner from us in E-Vorstadt.
>>> Already read: I love these 10 things about cycling in Salzburg <<
#6 A lot of exercise that we would never have done like that
A very important point for us: Forced movement due to the lack of alternatives. We’re incredibly lazy when it comes to the physical and have moved as little as possible over the past few years. Thanks to the car, we didn’t even notice HOW little we went through the world with muscle power. But the car is gone and we now have to cover every distance by bike, on foot or by bus. In other words: If we don’t ride a bike, we can do the 10,000 steps without any problems, with the bike we can do 14 kilometers a day without any problems. It’s like exercise without having to motivate yourself to do it. Did we trick ourselves?
Hack Porsche: [1] Jokingly, Berliners:
two-wheeled shopping trolley, which is usually pulled by an extendable handle and is usually used to transport purchases from the market or supermarket home.
#7 Shopping with the cargo bike
The shopping thing is actually a bit tricky. Of course, we also realized (after everyone else) that in our sanctified times it is cheaper not to take five items from the savings home with you every day, but to do weekly shopping. Our Haus- und Hof-Hofer is in Science City and actually easily accessible by bike, but in terms of transport it’s a stupid location. Jakob from Fanzy Bikes gave us the solution. He fixed our old Post cargo bike. With the right boxes, the bike holds a week’s shopping and is also super nice. And even if you can’t go shopping by bike at the moment, there’s now a solution. Please don’t laugh at us undressing, but we now have a shopping trolley that we can use to carry large amounts of groceries behind us without breaking our backs. Our Hackenporsche is from James and if it’s inherently uncool, it at least looks cute while saving us a lot of drudgery.
#8 Rail & Drive, taxis and nice people who give us a lift or lend their car
It doesn’t happen every day, but it happens all the time: sometimes you just need a car. For larger purchases or when transporting furniture. Or if you have to go somewhere where there is simply no public transport. To this end we have joined rail & drive Registered. It’s a service where you can rent a car by the hour, and it’s located near the train station. Now and then we also take a taxi because it’s practical or if there’s no other option. And of course we are very fortunate that there are many nice people in our lives who share their car with us when the need arises. We’ve used it at least 15 times in the last six months.
What else we have to say:
We actually have very few friends or, more often, who have a car. But most of them live in cities like Vienna, Berlin or Oslo. Salzburg without a car is a completely different number. We find it very tiring and extremely uncomfortable at times, especially during the winter months when it’s always dark and cold. It’s hard to overcome having to take public transport or a bicycle. In the warmer months, on the other hand, is pure joy and really fun. We’ll get back to you when the first car-free year is over.