Vienna’s long-term effort to pivot away from car dependency faced a measurable setback in 2025. New data reveals that motorized individual traffic in Vienna has seen a slight increase, challenging the city’s narrative of a linear transition toward purely eco-friendly urban mobility.
The findings, released Friday by City Councilor for Transport Ulli Sima, stem from the annual “Modal Split” analysis. While public transit and walking remain the primary ways residents navigate the capital, the share of trips made by private cars and motorcycles rose for the first time in several years, sparking a sharp political debate over the city’s current infrastructure priorities.
For years, Vienna has positioned itself as a global leader in sustainable transport, leveraging an affordable and dense public transit network to discourage car ownership. However, the 2025 figures suggest that this momentum has plateaued, with the city struggling to further marginalize the role of the private vehicle in daily commutes.
Breaking Down the 2025 Modal Split
In a move to provide greater precision, the city government published this year’s figures with decimal points for the first time, allowing for a more granular look at shifting habits. The data, based on a survey of approximately 2,500 residents, excludes tourists and commuters from outside the city to focus on internal daily mobility.
Public transportation, long the backbone of the city’s movement, saw a marginal dip to 33.6 percent, down from 34 percent in 2024. Walking remained stable at 30 percent. Cycling, however, experienced a more noticeable decline, falling to 10.5 percent from 11 percent the previous year.
The most contentious figure is the rise in motorized individual traffic. The combined share of cars and motorcycles climbed to 25.9 percent, up from 25 percent in 2024. For the first time, the city separated these categories, revealing that cars account for 24.9 percent of all trips, while mopeds and motorcycles make up the remaining 1 percent.
| Transport Mode | 2024 Share | 2025 Share |
|---|---|---|
| Public Transport | 34% | 33.6% |
| Walking | 30% | 30% |
| Cycling | 11% | 10.5% |
| Motorized Individual (MIV) | 25% | 25.9% |
Geography and Weather as Contributing Factors
City Hall has pushed back against the idea that the increase in car usage represents a systemic failure. Officials pointed to the city’s demographic shifts, noting that population growth is currently more pronounced in the outer districts. In these peripheral areas, the reliance on private vehicles is historically higher due to lower transit density compared to the city center.
To counter this, Sima emphasized that the city is prioritizing the expansion of cycling paths and public transport infrastructure specifically in these outer boroughs to bridge the mobility gap.
Environmental factors also played a role in the 2025 numbers. The city noted that weather volatility significantly impacted leisure cycling. According to official communications, 2025 was considerably more unstable than 2024, with a particularly wet and rainy July that likely drove cyclists back into their cars or onto the U-Bahn.
Despite the slight uptick in car use, Sima maintained that the overarching trajectory remains positive. “With the currently available data from the 2025 Modal Split survey, the trend toward environmentally friendly mobility in the growing 2-million-city is consolidating,” she stated.
A Political Clash Over Urban Planning
The data has provided ammunition for the Vienna Greens, who have been critical of the current administration’s pace of change. Mobility spokespeople Kilian Stark and Heidi Sequenz characterized the results as a “devastating balance of red-pink stagnation,” referring to the governing coalition.
The Greens argued that the city government is attempting to frame the data as a success when, in reality, the increase in motorized traffic signals a reversal of progress. They pointed toward continued investment in highway projects and a perceived lack of aggressive traffic-calming measures as the primary drivers of the increase.
This tension highlights a broader struggle within the city’s planning: the balance between maintaining accessibility for a growing population in the suburbs and the desire to create a car-free urban core. While the city celebrates that the car share has dropped from 40 percent in 1993 to roughly 25 percent today, the lack of a linear decline since 2019—when public transport peaked at 38 percent—suggests a “post-pandemic plateau” that the city has yet to overcome.
The next official review of the Modal Split is expected to be presented in May 2027, which will determine if the current infrastructure expansions in the outer districts are successfully curbing the reliance on private vehicles.
Do you think Vienna’s focus on outer-district infrastructure is the right move, or should the city be more aggressive with traffic calming in the center? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
