Living the Freedom on Two Wheels

When you arrive at the U2 terminus in Seestadt, you immediately sense that something is different here compared to the rest of Vienna. And as you take in the surroundings, it suddenly becomes clear: Nowhere else in the city are there so many children riding bikes as here. Almost every child here, as soon as they can walk, has a two-wheeler under them.

Since mobility data has been collected for several years in the so-called Mobility Panel and participants' routes are tracked via a special app, mobility planning in Seestadt can be continuously improved. In addition, the collected data forms the basis for innovative mobility solutions and research projects taking place at the aspern.mobil LAB at TU Wien. In applied research in Seestadt, science, administration, and businesses work together with residents to make urban mobility more sustainable.

The steadily growing cycling community in Seestadt owes much to the start-up "United In Cycling." Julian Walkowiak, his wife Fernanda, and Patrick Bischoff emerged as winners of the "Seestadt orchIDEE" competition by the shopping street association in 2015. The trio impressed with their concept combining a bike shop, repair service, and café. From the start, they knew that a sociable atmosphere makes it easier to spark a love of cycling across all age groups and to anchor gentle mobility in everyday life.

Children are a very important target group for United In Cycling. "Patrick especially noticed during his time as a kindergarten teacher that many parents take away their children's joy of cycling early on by giving them inadequate, cheap bikes. We wanted to consciously reverse this trend and make sure kids enjoy cycling." That's why, in addition to many high-quality bikes, there's also a special subscription where children from one to twelve years old are provided with the right, well-maintained bike.

Together with Wien 3420, they wanted to realize five uses under one roof: café, retail, workshop, mobility point, and info point. "To do this successfully, we would have needed three times as much space," Julian sums up. Then came the coronavirus pandemic, during which not only did bike sales drop sharply, but the café business also stagnated. The basic concept of the bike café was 50 percent bikes and 50 percent coffee.

"The pendulum clearly swung toward the bike shop and workshop, which became the more economically important part for us." The café was let go, and another move to a smaller location was necessary. With the arrival of a child in the Walkowiak family, Fernanda left the business, which is now run by the two men. While Julian handles organization and sales, Patrick is responsible for the workshop.

Long before rent-a-bike services conquered Vienna, Seestadt had already developed its own system. The so-called Seestadt fleet was designed to bridge the last mile between home and the subway. "Step by step, the Seestadt fleet was continuously expanded as Seestadt itself grew," reports Andreas Neisen, who is responsible for mobility planning at the development company Wien 3420. "But the system has now become outdated and can no longer be expanded, which is why the Seestadt fleet stations are now being switched to the WienMobil Rad system."

This brings several advantages for Seestadt fleet users. The rental bikes are no longer limited to Seestadt but can be used throughout Vienna. "This makes it easier to connect Seestadt to other regions by bike," says Neisen. "New neighborhoods in the district that previously had no stations will also get their own locations."

Currently, this affects the "Am Seebogen" neighborhood. Here, a station for cargo bikes is also being built. "The additional stations are financed by the Mobility Fund, which in turn is funded by the levy for mandatory parking spaces in collective garages," says Neisen, adding that in the future, they also want to increasingly implement private initiatives and corporate mobility management. This also applies to companies in the surrounding area of Seestadt. "There is still a lot of catching up to do here to encourage employees to switch from cars to bikes or to environmentally friendly mobility."