When it comes to cycle development, the federal level in Austria is shifting up two gears. On World Bicycle Day, June 3, the new Austrian Federal Minister for Climate Protection, Leonore Gewessler, announced that 40 million Euro would be invested this year or tight into projects to promote cycling as a climate-friendly mode of transportation. This is a tenfold increase compared to 2019. Per capita, the federal level will be investing 4.5 Euro.

“The construction of cycle paths makes double sense right now: You can get safely and healthily from A to B on a bicycle, and every euro invested in a bicycle path flows into the local economy. With bicycle funding, we are creating 18,000 secure jobs in Austria, ”said Gewessler.

The investments provided by the newly created Federal Ministry for Climate Protection, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology aims at creating bicycle-friendly conditions across Austria. A special focus will be on building high-quality cycle highways in the countries’ city regions. Bi-directional cycle highways shall come with a width of 4 metres. Intersections will be level-free, otherwise cyclists will have priority over motor vehicle traffic. Plans for 200km of cycle highways are currently in the pipeline in Lower Austria, the region surrounding Vienna, as well as in and around the capital of Styria, Graz, Austria’s second largest city. The city of Graz and the federal state of Styria will invest 10 million Euro as of 2021 into cycle highways. The federal co-funding rate of the investment cost for cycle highways is up to 50 %.

ECF’s member Radlobby Österreich has been advocating hard for many years that the federal level would step up. Radlobby President Andrzej Felczak says: “As late as 2015, Austria set the ambitious target of almost doubling cycling over a 10-year period to achieve a 15 % cycling modal share in 2025. But it never underpinned this ambition with an adequate level of investments. Until now.”

In its National Energy and Climate Plan 2020 – 2030 that Austria submitted to the European Commission, national investment needs for cycling development were estimated to be at 2.2 billion Euro over that decade. 20 % of these investments were expected to come from the federal level, the remaining 80 % from the local and regional level.

Further reading:

The 40 million Euro announcement: https://www.klimaaktiv.at/mobilitaet/radfahren/radfahroffensive2020.html

Plans for cycle highways in Lower Austria: https://www.ots.at/presseaussendung/OTS_20200306_OTS0105/attraktivierung-des-fussgaenger-und-radverkehrs-in-niederoesterreich

Plans for cycle highways in and around Graz: https://www.klimaaktiv.at/dam/jcr:b2e361d6-0aa8-4f44-9cca-76e4e861779d/Session_D1_%C3%96sterreichische_Strategien_F%C3%BCr_Mehr_Radverkehr.pdf