Skip to main content

Vienna tests car ban on Mariahilfer Strasse shopping route

Austria’s capital Vienna is carrying out a test which will ban cars on part of the Mariahilfer Strasse, the country's biggest shopping street. The test ban will also make it impossible for drivers to cross the road or to stop. Lasting for several months and if deemed a success, the test ban could lead to a permanent car ban coupled with pedestrian-friendly construction works from 2014. Critics of the car test ban fear it will drive many shoppers to out of town shopping centres.
August 20, 2013 Read time: 1 min
Austria’s capital Vienna is carrying out a test which will ban cars on part of the Mariahilfer Strasse, the country's biggest shopping street. The test ban will also make it impossible for drivers to cross the road or to stop.

Lasting for several months and if deemed a success, the test ban could lead to a permanent car ban coupled with pedestrian-friendly construction works from 2014. Critics of the car test ban fear it will drive many shoppers to out of town shopping centres. 

Related Content

  • Wildlife road danger study
    October 12, 2016
    Progress is being made on a study being carried out in North America of the risk to road users from wildlife. The study is being carried out by Leonard Sielecki at the University of Victoria and covers Canada and the US. This investigates the risk to road users posed by animals entering the roadway and considers the benefits of technologies to warn drivers of such risks. According to Sielecki, over 500 people have so far responded, considerably in excess of the number expected. Of these respondents, around
  • Improving road safety in Europe?
    July 24, 2012
    New plans by the European Commission are being proposed in a bid to reduce accident levels on the road. The changes are being made in a bid to reduce accident levels caused by defective vehicles. Under the new rules, all motorcycles and scooters would require technical inspections at regular intervals.
  • Uber and South African Breweries team up for breathalyser test
    December 7, 2015
    Transportation app Uber and South African Breweries have joined forces to offer breathalyser tests for party-goers to check their alcohol levels before they get behind the wheel of a car. Uber, under their joint anti-drink driving campaign called PLEDGE, is setting up breathalyser kiosks at South African Breweries events in Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg. The project comes after the World Health Organisation released statistics pointing to 58% of road death in the country are linked to alcohol con
  • Double trouble
    February 28, 2012
    Police in Norway spotted a vehicle travelling at an average 133km/h in a 100km/h zone along the E18 highway, some 40km from capital Oslo and gave pursuit. After the police tailed the vehicle for a kilometre, officers then stopped the car at a service station. The police realised the occupants, a man and a woman, were otherwise engaged but exercised discretion when describing the couple's second offence. However they did add that as the driver's attention was clearly distracted he faces a lengthy ban from dr