Bike-sharing as public transport: Vienna covers the entire city

The price for half an hour on municipal bikes is just 60 cents

Today, Vienna’s public transport company, Wiener Linen, announced that the city’s public bike-sharing system now covers the entire city. Construction of the Wien Mobil Rad started in April and in the last six months, city authorities have been able to provide 3,000 bikes in 240 locations.

Cycling as public transport

As cities are increasingly moving towards sustainable mobility and away from personal fossil-fueled vehicles, many have started embracing the bike as the main mode of personal mobility. Some, like Hamburg, have even opted to create options for cycling between the urban centre and commuter towns.  

Others, like Berlin, have opted for cycling expressways crisscrossing the city. Moreover, the city of Brussels straight-up offers citizens a 900-euro bonus for selling their car and buying a bike.

Vienna, however, is taking the next logical step by offering cycling as a public transport option. In fact, people can even gain access to shared bikes in the Austrian capital via their subscriptions to public transport. This means that renting a bike for half an hour costs people just 30 cents. Otherwise, the regular fee is 60 cents, which is still extremely affordable.

Costs and usage

According to a statement by city officials, the project will cost Wiener Linen 2.3 million euros annually, while the infrastructure itself cost 7.5 million. At the same, the public transport company claims that 13,000 people registered to use the shared bikes in the first month, while that number now sits at 75,000.

Since their launch, the bikes have been borrowed 200,000 times, so City Councillor Peter Hanke explained that the dense network, covering all 13 districts of Vienna, makes the system particularly attractive.

He continued by explaining that six months into the initiative, the range of services Wiener Linen provides is now unimaginable without bike sharing.