Oh. Vienna.

One thing I have learned over my career is that nothing is new and for this post that's technically correct, but equally, it's not often that I end up doing a double take with a piece of design. My second post from my summer trip to Vienna.

My first post from Vienna looked at the city's first cycle street.

For this post, I was on Taborstraße to the north of the city in the area between the River Danube and the Danube Canal where I was off to find a breakfast pastry in a local super market with my family. As we left, we saw a tram/ bus stop and we decided to sit there to eat before heading off for the day's activities.

A double-take

I wasn't paying much attention to what was going on, but then a tram arrived and things got "interesting". Above is a general view of the southbound Karmeliterplatz tram/ bus stop. So far, so ordinary.

On closer inspection, you can see a tactile paving strip with a tactile "box" to help visually impaired folks get to the front of the tram or bus (above), although it stopped short of the edge of the raised kerb at the bus/ tram stop.

People get on and off the tram (above) as you would expect, but notice the tram/ bus stop flag and where the tactile paving stops - it's for a good reason.

Then things got weird. Drivers started undertaking the tram through the boarding area. At first, I thought that someone had somehow made a mistake.

Then I noticed people cycling through the boarding area when I realised that the boarding area was also the carriageway - the line across the area (just behind the cyclists) is a stop line for the traffic signals at the junction ahead of the tram (above). You can see a tram coming from the other direction.

A look at the layout

Above is a view of the approach to the stop and the black car is being driven up a slight ramp onto the boarding area and so note that essentially, there is a pair of tram lines in the centre of the street with a traffic lane to the right of each direction and for the stop, the traffic lane goes through the boarding area.

If we look at the stop from the other side of the street, we can see the definite kerb upstand of the boarding area that people are driving next to (above). Taborstraße has been used as a traffic route for as long as it has existed and the photo also reminds us that Vienna still prioritises quite a lot whether for moving motor vehicles or parking them.

I went back again another day (to get breakfast) so I would get a proper snapshot of the stop in action and this follows in the next group of photographs.

The tram arrives (above) and people are waiting on the main footway.

The tram has stopped (above) and people start to move towards the tram. the driver of the black car has stopped just behind the tram.

Nobody is getting on or off the tram, so drivers and cyclists start to move up the inside of the tram towards the traffic signal stop line (above).

More traffic arrives, but the tram is still held at a tram stop signal (above).

The tram moves off with a tram proceed signal, traffic is still held on red.

With the tram clear of the junction, general traffic is released and so the arrangement is used for tram priority at this location because in the distance, the street narrows and all traffic shares the tram corridor (which is very sketchy for cycling) and so trams get get ahead of general traffic. My understanding is that buses use the general traffic lane rather than the tram route because they are still subject to the general traffic signals.

Nothing is new in highways

Now, this isn't an isolated design. On our last day, we were dashing to find a rail replacement bus so I didn't get any chance to watch the stop, but this one on Ungargasse outside Rennweg station turns into three traffic lanes as it approaches a signalised junction. Actually, if you follow the tramlines in the city, you will see this design in lots of places which provide tram priority through signalised junctions.

Austrian traffic law requires drivers and cyclists to stop to allow people to board and alight, only being allowed to proceed afterwards which makes the layout rules-led rather than design-led.

This approach isn't new for cycling as can be seen at some bus stops in Copenhagen (above), although it turns out there are a fair few international examples where general traffic operates as with Vienna - stops without platforms being a pertinent description and for me, a whole new area of design to investigate.

Here's one in Melbourne, Australia where passengers cross a traffic lane and in this case, there isn't a platform, so there's no level boarding as well as another with the same layout as Vienna - nothing is ever unique in the world of highway design! In the state of Victoria, Rule 163 of the "Road Safety Road Rules 2017" sets out the required behaviour, with the details for road markings and signs set out in local design standards (p69). There's also an interesting video from a local enthusiast which is worth a look.

From a tram perspective, centre of the street running makes sense because it literally gives wriggle room so that any curves or corners to negotiate can be as gently as possible. However, from what can be seen in Vienna and elsewhere, there is also the tension of trying to balance this with motor traffic capacity. If a street is low traffic, then any residual motor access would use the tram alignment freeing up space for other things.

Contrast with the UK

I have written quite a bit about bus stops and in the UK context, these layouts are called "shared-use bus boarders" (above) but only for cyclists. They have been controversial to the point there is currently a moratorium on them in England. In UK law, there isn't anything requiring cyclists to stop which might be part of the issue in cultural terms, although I will also say that design-led approaches are always better than rules-led approaches in my view.

I am also not saying we look at Vienna's (and other countries') designs as a way saying that they make shared use bus boarders in the UK for cycle tracks a good design approach, as they have problems; but I have found this whole subject interesting in putting some of the UK practice and discourse into perspective. 

The key issue for me is these designs, wherever they are, are compromises that never tend to impact drivers because the implications for better design is the removal of general traffic space and capacity.

I will leave you with a video of the stop which, well, made me stop.