News

COVID 19 - when the pavement is too narrow for keeping the required distance...

Where do 65-year-olds live? Where are pavements too narrow? A research team at the TU Vienna has determined where more space is needed in Vienna. Keeping your distance ...

map of Vienna's pavements and where there are too narrow for pedestrians

© MOVE

The map gives an overview of where in Vienna pavements are too narrow to keep the required distance (Covid19) and therefore where a redistribution of public space would be beneficial for pedestrians.

Where do 65-year-olds live? Where are pavements too narrow? A research team at the TU Wien has determined where more space is needed in Vienna. 

Keeping your distance - this is one of the key rules of conduct to contain the spread of COVID-19. Risk groups in particular, such as people over 65, should pay attention to this. However, in urban areas, this is proving to be more difficult than expected: in many areas of Vienna, the pavements are so narrow that the recommended safety distance of one to two metres cannot be maintained. Therefore, the Minister for Infrastructure, Leonore Gewessler, created the legal basis for the temporary recess for car traffic in individual streets in residential areas.

Spatial planners Aggelos Soteropoulos and Robert Kalasek from the TU Wien's Institute of Spatial Planning have produced a map of Vienna which illustrates at which points it would be particularly useful to close individual streets to cars so that (if necessary) people can swerve onto the road without worrying about their safety. 

Further information:

https://www.tuwien.at/tu-wien/aktuelles/news/news/menschen-statt-autos-wo-strassenoeffnungen-sinnvoll-waeren/, opens an external URL in a new window

https://www.derstandard.at/story/2000116655146/wenn-der-gehweg-zu-schmal-fuer-den-sicherheitsabstand-wird, opens an external URL in a new window

https://www.diepresse.com/5798154/wien-offnet-strassen-fur-fussganger, opens an external URL in a new window

[Last updated: 2020-04-09]