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Vienna is a modern and people-friendly city. It has been awarded various titles in the recent years and has achieved high rankings in surveys comparing big cities on quality of life. For example Vienna topped the famous Mercer’s Quality of Living survey in 2010. Both locals and tourists in Vienna appreciate the way walking in the Inner City of Vienna feels. Unlike some other capitals, Vienna city centre offers a plenty of space, trees, and parks. Many streets and areas have little or no traffic.
Why are the streets in Vienna so wide? Though modern urban planners have done a lot of good work in Vienna, the roots of the characteristic wide boulevards with trees and statues can be found much earlier in Vienna’s history. The way Viennese city centre looks today should be credited to the powerful Habsburg Emperors, namely their desire to make Vienna feel like a glorious imperial city (with Rome in mind).
As a result, walking in Vienna’s Inner City is a pleasure. You have a lot of parks, trees, and gardens where you can take a break and hide from the sun and the noise of the city. You can watch magnificent buildings, statues, and fountains all around. Though there are a few streets with lots of cars (especially the Ringstrasse), there are many places with safe pedestrian crossings and traffic lights.
Thanks to enough space in Vienna city centre, many streets have special designated lanes for cyclists, which make bicycle one of the most practical means of transport in the Austrian capital (besides the fact that the surface of central Vienna is mostly flat and not too demanding for riding a bike). Nevertheless, if you are too tired to walk or ride a bike, you can take advantage of the outstanding public transport in Vienna.