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Vienna is the city with the most climate-friendly transport concept. This is demonstrated by a ranking released Monday by the environmental organization Greenpeace, which compared the nine state capitals in seven traffic and environmentally relevant categories, including public transportation and air quality. Bregenz and Innsbruck followed suit. Eisenstadt did his worst.
However, Greenpeace sees the need to act in all cities. Because traffic is one of the biggest climate killers in Austria. “About a third of climate-relevant emissions can be traced back to environmentally damaging mobility,” calculated Jasmin Duregger, a climate expert at Greenpeace Austria.
The best public transport in Vienna
The participation of different modes of transport in total mobility, air quality, cycling, public transport, parking, pedestrian-friendliness, as well as electric mobility and car sharing was examined. Vienna emerged as the winner, as public transportation in the federal capital has expanded, there is extensive car and bike sharing, and the management of parking space is climate-friendly, environmentalists assessed. That means that most of the parking areas are paid, while individual tickets for public transportation are comparatively cheap, they say.
Greenpeace also sees potential for improvement in Vienna, especially when it comes to pedestrian friendliness and air quality. While around 70 percent of trips in Vienna are made using environmentally friendly means of transport, such as bicycles or public transport, the situation is reversed in Eisenstadt, the last capital of the state.
70 per cent of trips in the capital of Burgenland are covered by motorized means of transport, such as the car. Eisenstadt could score points with good air quality, but with “poor parking space management and weak public transportation, it offers little incentive” to switch to climate-friendly alternatives. “If there is no cheap and fast public transportation, there is no incentive to leave the car,” said Duregger.
The environmentalists’ appeal went to politicians, who were responsible for creating the infrastructure for traffic change and establishing individual incentives. “Only if climate-friendly means of transport are also fast, cheap, comfortable and reliable, will the offer be accepted by the general public and will we have the possibility of a real change in traffic,” asked Duregger. The presentation of the ranking of the state capital is carried out within the framework of the “Mother Earth” climate approach, an initiative of the ORF and the main environmental and nature conservation organizations.
