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LIVING IN AUSTRIA

What you need to know about driving in Austria ahead of the new year

Traffic jams and street closures will make life harder for drivers in Austria during the festivities. Here's what you need to know.

Published: 29 December 2023 15:41 CET
Traffic
Vehicles sit in traffic on a congested motorway. Photo by JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP

If you plan on driving to your car somewhere in the next few days, you’ll have to be prepared to face traffic jams and street closures throughout Austria. 

Not only New Year’s Eve events will be causing blockages, but sports events and a large influx of people travelling to ski resorts for their winter holidays will affect traffic, according to road experts at ARBÖ, Austria’s driving association.

New Year running events

Running events across Austria, especially in cities like Vienna, Graz, Linz, and Innsbruck, regularly lead to road closures, affecting local traffic and public transport systems.

The primary running event in Vienna starts at 11 am in the city centre. Several streets in the first district, including the Ringstrasse, will be closed from around 10 am to 1 pm. Public transport via Wiener Linien, including tramlines D, 1, 2, 271, 74A, and tram line 31, will be altered, shortened, or diverted between 9:45 am and 1 pm, causing potential delays.

In Graz, the New Year’s Eve run starts around 2:10 pm, following a five-kilometre route through Mariahilfer Platz, Lendkai, Kalvarienbrücke, Kaiser-Franz-Josefs-Kai, and back to Mariahilfer Platz. Road closures will affect these areas from approximately 1:30 pm to 4 pm. Graz’s tram lines 1, 4, 5, 7, 13, 26, and 67 will have adjustments or replacement services between 2 pm and 4:30 pm.

READ ALSO: Where can I celebrate New Year’s Eve in Vienna last minute?

Linz hosts its main New Year’s Eve run at 3 pm with a three-kilometre route through the main square, Volksgarten, Herrenstraße, and the old town. Public transport services on tram lines 1, 2, 3, and 4 and bus lines 12, 17, 19, 26, 27, 45, and 46 may experience interruptions or stops around 2 pm to 4 pm.

Finally, Innsbruck hosts a New Year’s Eve run at 5 pm, following a route through the city centre, potentially leading to local road closures.

These events may cause disruptions and closures to roads and public transport, with alternate routes or replacement services set up to accommodate the running events and ensure public safety.

Other sports events

The Four Hills Tournament’s third stop at the Berg-Isel-Schanze in Innsbruck will occur from January 2 to January 3, 2023, attracting thousands of ski jumping enthusiasts.

READ ALSO: What are the strict rules in Austria for New Year’s Eve fireworks?

On January 3rd, spectators mainly gather to witness the thrilling competition and enjoy the venue’s unique view. To accommodate the high number of visitors’ vehicles, the Brenner Bundesstraße (B182) between the Innsbruck-Süd highway junction and Innsbruck will be closed from 9 am to 5 pm.

The influx of visitors will impact the city centre, Inntal Freeway (A12), and Brenner Freeway (A13), leading to longer traffic delays and limited parking spaces. Officials recommend using the free shuttle bus service from the central train station to the base of the Bergisel or utilising other transportation options provided by IVB to ease travel congestion.

Parties and parades

New Year’s Eve celebrations in various Austrian cities, including Vienna and seven provincial capitals, offer outdoor festivities for people to enjoy.

Vienna hosts the prominent New Year’s Eve trail, anticipated to draw hundreds of thousands of attendees to the city centre. Road closures are expected to affect significant areas, with Ringstrasse likely closed from Operngasse to Rathausplatz starting around 7:30 pm until about 1:30 am. 

READ ALSO: What are the best New Year’s markets in Vienna?

Additional closures could affect Löwelstraße, Renngasse, Schottengasse, and Schulergasse from midday onwards.

To ease transportation congestion, experts recommend using public transportation, as subway lines, numerous tram lines and select bus services will operate continuously from December 31st to January 1st, providing convenient travel options for attendees.

Similar celebrations will occur in other provincial capitals, including Graz, Linz, Salzburg, Innsbruck, Eisenstadt, and Sankt Pölten, where festivities are planned at main squares or historic town areas. 

Expect local road closures in these locations, emphasising the advice to avoid personal vehicle use for those attending public New Year’s Eve gatherings.

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For members

HEALTH

Patients in Vienna face long waits for specialist health appointments

Waiting times to get appointments with health specialists in Vienna have increased significantly, a new study has revealed.

Published: 17 May 2024 09:56 CEST
Patients in Vienna face long waits for specialist health appointments

Accessing essential healthcare within a reasonable timeframe is becoming increasingly difficult for Viennese residents.

The Vienna Medical Association presented their new study this week which shows that waiting times for appointments with health specialists have increased significantly in recent years.

The study, which involved contacting over 850 doctors’ practices via so-called “mystery calls,” revealed that child and adolescent psychiatry currently had the longest waiting times in the city.

Patients can expect to wait an average of 90 days for an appointment.

Other specialisations where patients have to wait long to receive help include radiology (57 days), neurology (45 days), ophthalmology (44 days), pulmonology (36 days), internal medicine (33 days), and dermatology (28 days).

The waiting time for seeing a gynaecologist has increased fourfold since 2012, with patients now waiting an average of 32 days.

READ MORE: Why are there fewer public sector doctors in Austria?

No new patients accepted

In certain specialist areas, there is no capacity to accommodate new patients. The situation where no new patients are accepted occurs particularly often in paediatric practices, where more than half of the public healthcare practices have put a freeze on admissions.

In child and adolescent psychiatry, 40 percent do not accept new patients, and among gynaecologists, it is almost a third (30 percent). Family doctors also struggle with welcoming new patients, and many of their practices have already reached full capacity.

The Medical Association calls for immediate action, urging the health insurance sector to become more attractive and receive better funding. This could involve measures to incentivise doctors to work within the public system, potentially reducing wait times and improving patient access to care.

During the study presentation, Johannes Steinhart, president of the association, described the increased waiting times as the result of neglect within the established health insurance sector. He said he believes that the public health system is massively endangered.

Naghme Kamaleyan-Schmied, chairwoman of the Curia of the resident doctors in the association, pointed out that while the population of the federal capital has grown by 16 percent since 2012, the number of public doctors has fallen by 12 percent in the same period.

The association now wants to make the public healthcare system more attractive to doctors, which could cut down waiting times and make it easier for patients to receive care. The association’s demands for this to happen include increasing flexibility in contract options, integrating health and social professions in individual practices, reducing bureaucracy, and improving fees.

ÖGK, Österreichische Gesundheitskasse, Austria’s largest public healthcare fund, is currently creating 100 additional public health positions, with almost two-thirds of the positions already having applicants, as well as planning for another 100 positions. They also aim to create a central telemedicine service and a platform for making appointments by phone and online, which is meant to reduce waiting times and improve access to care.

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