Why not tour Vienna on a bike? This is often the best way to explore and get to know a new city. Not only can you go from from one place to another faster, but you can also discover routes not easily passable by cars. And if you’re concerned about the environment, using the bike is the perfect way to encourage other people to follow suit and help preserve Mother Nature.
Austria’s capital city has its own bike system called City Bikes. This program was introduced in 2003 and it’s one of the most modern city bike systems in the world today.
Currently, there are more than 60 bike stations spread around Vienna and they’re open round the clock, every day of the week. For those interested to use these bikes, all they need is to sign up for a City Bike card. For the first hour, bike use is free of charge. The second hour costs one Euro, the third hour costs three Euro, the fourth and
more hours four Europ per hour. At the stations, bikers can use the terminal system that features a touch screen. Here, users will know how many bikes are available and they can check in and check out with their bike.
Vienna’s bike system is aimed at promoting the bicycle as a daily means of transportation. So far, the bikes already make up about eight percent of the overall traffic in the city.
Vienna today has more than 1,050 kilometers of bicycle path network. Bikes are allowed both on regular streets and on the underground.
In the last century, biking was relegated to sports and commuting on a bike seemed nerdy. Today however, fashionistas are taking the bike culture back by making it a trendy part of their life. City biking has indeed become a fashion trend among the young and chic. Since 2007, the Copenhagen Cycle Chic blog has documented beautiful bikes and (mostly female) riders in Copenhagen, Denmark, inventing the global Cycle Chic phenomenon.
So get on a bike – your best bet to tour Vienna’s great sights at your own convenience, while looking chic.
Images (c) copyright by Copenhagen Cycle Chic. Used with permission from their Flickr set.
