The Ranty Highwayman: Argentinierstraße: A Dutch Inspired Cycle Street

August saw a family trip to Vienna, but of course, there was time for me to go for a couple of cycle rides while I was there and in this post, I am going to show you Argentinierstraße, a street to the south of the city centre.

Argentinierstraße provides a connection between Vienna's Central Station and Karlplatz, which is just outside the city core. The street was named after a donation from the Argentine government after the First World War, but the streets in the area had been around for longer.

Apparently it carried one of the city's first separate cycle tracks, but at around 2 metres wide, it had become overcapacity with 6,000 trips a day and conflicted with pedestrian space.

The public realm also left a lot to be desired, as well as there being lots of traffic permeability and car parking. It's worth having a look at how it used to be.

Send for the Dutch

The city wanted to improve the street for cycling given its usefulness in connecting Central Station to the city and so as part of a programme to develop the cycle network starting in 2021, minds were turned towards Argentinierstraße.

Dutch consultant Royal HaskoningDHV (now known as Haskoning) was brought in to help. Engagement with the community demonstrated a desire for change and especially having a much greener street. The cycle track simply no longer worked and so the solution was to create a cycle street.

Careful translation

My impression of Austria as a visitor and reading up a little on their traffic law is there is a much higher reliance on rules than my experiences cycling in the Netherlands. In terms of cycle streets (Fahrradstraßen), they are rules-led and governed by traffic regulations, supported by traffic signs (below), whereas Dutch cycle streets (fietsstraten) are design-led from a functionality perspective and not governed by traffic law.

A round blue sign on a white background with a white cycle symbol on it and the word "Fahrradstraße" underneath in black.

The designers took a design-led approach because that is far more important for self-explaining streets than signs backed by rules and this also included network-level design.

By this, I mean the local area for motor traffic movement was redesigned and using filtering (mostly one-way loops), motor traffic has been greatly reduced while maintaining local access. Cycle traffic has full two-way access and like Dutch cycle streets, one can think of it as a cycle track that can be used by local traffic; but the filtering of that traffic is crucial.

My post on Dutch cycle streets goes into far more detail, but the design of Argentinierstraße follows some key principles:

It is designated as and clearly is a main cycle route,
Residential - there is a bit of mixed use here which is fine,
Where through motor traffic has been removed,
Where cycle traffic flow is much higher than motor traffic,
A speed limit of 30 kp/h (20 mph)

It's a "mixed-profile" style design with a 4.5m wide carriageway surfaced in red asphalt and with paved channels. Car parking is inset which also has a buffer of 0.5m from the edge of the carriageway (as best as I can measure from Google) which is very much in line with Dutch guidance - although the parking bays are marked a bit close to the edge of the carriageway.

For more detail from the designers, have a look at this piece from the Dutch Cycling Embassy, but the redesigned street (and local road network) fully opened in 2025.

A ride along Argentinierstraße

Let's have a look at the sights. This series of photographs starts at the street's northern end and then heads south.

Joining the cycle street, just off Karlplatz, it's marked with a cycle street traffic sign. The legal force of the sign in Austria allows cyclists to cycle two abreast and only allows drivers to over taken where 1.5m clear space is available (below).

A traffic sign at the start of the cycle street, a blue round sign with a bike symbol and the word "Fahrradstraßer" on it and a no entry next to it with "ausgen" and a bike symbol.

I am not 100% sure on Austrian law, but requiring people to cycle in single file was the requirement until recently, but this has been changed to permit it on the road where the speed limit is 30km/h. It still seems a bit messy, but at least in Vienna, things seemed less restrictive and on busier roads, you'd want to use the cycle tracks anyway.

A round blue sign on a white background with a white cycle symbol on it and the word "Fahrradstraße" underneath in black. There is a diagonal red line through it all.

For completeness, this is the end of the cycle street legally (above).

A red surfaced road with a pair of large cycle symbols in white in it with an arrow for each direction of the street for cycles. There is some car parking in cobbled recessed bays each side and a signalised crossroads ahead. All in streets with 3 and 4 storey buildings.

Above is the junction with Gußhausstraße which, curiously, is signalised. I am not sure you'd find this in the Netherlands, but Gußhausstraße seems to be quite a busy connector road. The photo below is from west of the junction with Argentinierstraße running left to right.

A view of a two way cycle track crossing a road and heading into the distance at traffic signals. There is a sign saying Fahrradstraße in both directions left to right.

As can be seen in the photo above, Gußhausstraße runs eastbound and I think it works at the network-level with Weyringergasse to the south which runs westbound for general traffic and which is also signalised. The cycle track you can see has to be used by people cycling and it's two-way which is quite narrow.

A two way cycle track crossing a street ahead. There is a litle slip lane to the right to join the main street.

The photo above is also from Gußhausstraße, but looking east and the signals do provide an easy way to turn right into the cycle street.

A red surfaced road stretching ahead to a church in the distance. There is a side road to the left with a zebra crossing over it. The backdrop is 4 and 5 storey buildings. The street lighting is on a wide along the centre of the street with lanterns over the centre of the road.

Above shows the junction with Wohllebengasse. General traffic is required to turn left here as is general traffic coming towards us because of the one-way filtering. In order to mitigate this for pedestrians moving ahead, a zebra crossing is provided on the side road.

A red surfaced road heading towards a red brick church. There is parking in recessed cobbled bays to the left and planting beds and trees both sides.

Further south again (above) and St. Elisabeth's church can be seen in the distance. On the left, there isn't quite the buffer to parking that's needed, but the pale coloured channel block helps to some extent and as a cycle street, people can be more confident taking the space.

A red surfaced road. There are planting beds both sides with trees and inset car parking between the beds. Someone is cycling away from us.

Above is another view of the street, but looking north in this case. One observation I have is the kerbs at the edge of the footway and the channel block are slightly different tonally, but maybe not enough for people with impaired vision to distinguish. This can mean that people think the channel is the edge of the footway which creates a risk of stumbling or tripping on the actual kerb.

A pair of no entry signs to the road ahead just beyond a zebra crossing over a red surfaced road. Beyond the no entry signs, 5 pale buff stone stripes are across the road. There is a red brick church ahead and trees left in front of an apartment building and the wall to the right.

Above is a crossing just south of the junction with Plößlgasse and here perhaps the kerb line is a little easier to pick out. We are looking uphill here and so I am guessing the stripes across the road are some kind of warning to northbound users. You can just make out a slight bend at the crossing and this is where the carriageway has been shifted over a little which might act as a bit of traffic calming.

Further south still and we are on the approach to St. Elisabeth's Church (above).

The route wraps around the church and we're heading up a slightly steeper hill as we get further away from the city centre (above).

A group of cyclists wait at traffic lights to cross a large road. They are on the end of a red surfaced road with planting both sides. Ahead is a tall glass office block.

Finally, the route meets Wiedner Gürtel (above) which is a major road and a formal federal highway. It's a very wide road and full of traffic, but for the cycle route, there is a direct crossing which connects to the central station.

Final thoughts

As an example of a cycle street, I think Argentinierstraße does a fine job. Even though I visited mid-morning on a Tuesday, there were plenty of people cycling and there was very little traffic. The design is testament to the Dutch designers taking the essence of their home-approach and working with the city to deliver something that feels very familiar to use.

I think the signalised junctions are incongruous and over time the wider neighbourhood needs cross-traffic filtering out as there are roads to the north and south which should be used for through-traffic. I also think the northern end needs better wayfinding to the main cycle route through Karlplatz to improve coherence.

I will leave you this time with a little video of me cycling south to north (downhill) . The quality isn't my usual standard, but this was with my phone in my shirt pocket rather than my usual camera, but it shows the route fairly well. Watch out for the close pass and the car door being opened (near the end). The former was bad behaviour (which is universal) and the latter shows how the design places people cycling in the lane and so there was little risk.