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The cycling path will be three meters wide and around 2 kiloemtres long, Source: Yura Khomitskyi / Unsplash

Next year, you'll be able to get to Vienna’s airport on a bike

Next year, you'll be able to get to Vienna’s airport on a bike

Authorities are extending the city’s cycling infrastructure to reach Schwechat airport

Today, the construction of a new cycling path broke ground in Vienna. The new path is supposed to connect the city’s extensive cycling network to the airport. The project will be handled by authorities in the Austrian capital as well as the Federal State of Lower Austria. Although Schwechat Airport serves Vienna, it is actually located outside of the city’s jurisdiction.

In the future, people will be able to cycle and walk along a path that is separated from car traffic to the airport. The path will be over 2 kilometres long, with just 600 metres in Vienna’s administrative territory and the rest in Lower Austria.

The project is set to complete in 2023 and will connect the airport plugging the gap in the Austrian capital’s cycling infrastructure in Simmering, the district located closest to the airport.

Cycling offensive

Many European cities have been ramping up their cycling infrastructure in the last few years, trying to convince more people to ditch their cars. Recently, cities like Hamburg, Berlin and Vienna have launched massive projects for cycling-only streets and highways.

The point of these infrastructure developments is to counter some of cycling’s biggest drawbacks, namely that it can be dangerous because people need to share the road with cars and pedestrians. Some cities have even opted to introduce cycling priority streets, where both cars and bikes coexist, but cars cannot overtake bikes.

Another issue is that it is hard and inconvenient to travel great distances, say, from one side of a city to another or outside of a municipality.

In Vienna’s case, the new bike path to the airport will connect loose ends in the cycling infrastructure in Simmering, while also offering a way out of the city and to the airport. This means that citizens will be able to ride their bikes and then board a plane, which is an exciting idea.

Additionally, authorities have said that the path they are constructing will be around three metres wide, making it part of Vienna’s cycling highways.

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