There is one place in Vienna - or in Austria for that matter - where you can ride your bike safely on a motorway: that is closed exit Favoriten on Tangente motorway.
Why "Tangente"? Because it is supposed to run tangential to the Inner City, which it does; but it runs still straight through inhabited areas (today I found out that only 100 metres from this place they are even building a new apartment block). Tangente motorway naturally is one of the most frequented motorways in Austria (if not the most frequented one).
But why "closed exit Favoriten"? Now, that's a long story ... they built that exit when everyone still believed in progress, when no-one ever cared about too much traffic, or nature, or carbon-dioxide. When that exit Favoriten was ready still no one cared about all those things - but a local politician of Favoriten (probably one living close-by) who feared that this exit would increase traffic in its immediate surroundings (which of course it would). Thus he blocked the opening of this exit, and it remained closed ever since. All this happened in the late 1970ies. As you can imagine this closed exit already is in bad shape - it is 30 years old after all; and even though no cars except the police (to radar traffic below) ever use it (and except the occasional bicycle, of course) a restoration of this closed exit might be necessary at some time soon. Either that, or dismantle it.
