35A "shackle lock"

Viennese bus station barricaded with bicycle hangers

Anyone who used the 35A on Wednesday was amazed at the wheel brackets in the middle of the station.(Bild: zVg)

A prank straight out of a picture book: In Vienna's Döbling district, a bus station has been completely disabled by bike bars for the already fiercely contested cycle path. The city quickly made the bizarre hoppala disappear again.

Many people in Döbling don't like the new cycle path in Vienna's Krottenbachstraße anyway, but the "finishing touches" to it finally made people in the district think they were dreaming: on Wednesday, freshly installed bike bars were suddenly found in front of the 35A Kratzlgasse station of all places, so that getting on and off the bus was only possible at the front door - if the driver was accurate to the millimetre when approaching the station.

Phones in the district and city hall were ringing off the hook
District manager Daniel Resch's phones were ringing off the hook. He felt confirmed that the cycle path was "a wickedly expensive planning mistake from start to finish": "The whole mess has now reached another climax with this mockery!" If the city were to coordinate the planning of the cycle paths and the construction work, this could be prevented, warns Resch. He sees a fitting "encore" to the controversial project.

Six bike bars in the middle of the station make getting on and off the bus a hurdle race.(Bild: zVg)

... and the bars are gone again
The absurd barricades in front of the bus station were only there for a short time, however, because the phones were also ringing off the hook in the department of City Councillor for Infrastructure Ulli Sima. Accordingly, it quickly became apparent that the external company commissioned to install the hoops had apparently misread the plans.

The city "checked the situation as soon as it became aware of it and removed the bike racks immediately - which was done within just one hour," the city hall's road construction department told the Krone. The costs were borne by the company. The "comfortable boarding and alighting of passengers in the entire bus stop area" was "possible again from the afternoon".