Vienna wants change

Too dangerous: “E-mopeds off the cycle path!”

Harald Frey from the Vienna University of Technology and City Councillor for Transport Ulli Sima (SPÖ) believe that e-mopeds pose a massive threat to road safety.(Bild: Zwefo)

It's a problem that has increased massively in recent months: There are now more and more so-called e-mopeds without license plates on Vienna's cycle paths.

Fully motorized vehicles, bulky, heavy and often much too fast. They are also a thorn in the side of City Councillor for Transport Ulli Sima (SPÖ): "E-mopeds off the cycle path!" That is why she is now calling for a reform of the bicycle ordinance at federal level to ban such vehicles from cycle paths in future and thus ensure safety.

Traffic scientist Harald Frey from the Vienna University of Technology conducted an initial study on the speed and road safety of e-vehicles. The result: e-mopeds in particular often travel much faster than the permitted 25 km/h.

On the cycle highway in Lassallestrasse, for example, 50 percent of e-mopeds were measured at more than 26 km/h and 15 percent at more than 34 km/h. An average e-moped also weighs 70 to 80 kg unladen, plus the weight of the rider and any additional cargo.

1000 e-mopeds

are currently on the roads in Vienna, according to the city. Many of them are also on the cycle paths. This is now set to change.

Clear regulations are now required at federal level, as in Germany. Sima now wants to increase the pressure on Transport Minister Leonore Gewessler (Greens) and put the issue on the agenda at the next conference of state transport ministers in June.