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Visitors in Vienna's Burggarten (archive image)
Photo: Lucas Vallecillos / VWPics / imago images
SPIEGEL:
Mr. Madreiter, Vienna has been calling itself "Smart City" for a number of years.
What is so smart about you?
Madreiter:
We recognized years ago that technical, ecological and economic changes always require a broad social base.
For example, digitization cannot be seen as a pure challenge for information technology, but must be managed socially, citizens involved, and let them participate.
SPIEGEL:
What does that mean exactly?
Madreiter:
Already at zero hour, around ten years ago, we developed the vision of the Smart City with the involvement of civil society.
There were dozens of workshops with politics, science, business and, of course, residents of the city.
Everyone was concerned with the question: What kind of Vienna do we want to live in in 2050?
This has produced much more radical approaches than we in the administration would have ever expected.
SPIEGEL: For example?
Madreiter:
Let's take public space.
The citizens clearly stated: Cars out, public transport and pedestrians in.
But it is also clear that there is a lot that is not possible with this radicalism and speed.
That is the big challenge: We have to be a smart city for everyone, old and young, digital natives and people who still like to read the newspaper on paper.
So with every innovation I have to ask myself: Is it target-oriented if we digitize everything we can without replacement?
SPIEGEL:
Definitely not.
But aren't you missing out on many opportunities?
Madreiter:
I don't think so, because I don't see any contradiction here.
But I have the feeling that in many cities that call themselves smart cities, the baby is being thrown out with the bathwater.
Of course, it cannot be that I still have to fill out municipal applications on paper in 2020.
But what use is a fully digital office with an application system that is aimed at totally fit 23-year-old digital natives?
No, I need a system that is oriented towards the weakest in society and does not exclude them.
SPIEGEL:
Movements like Fridays for Future would argue that we hardly have time for such middle ground given the huge challenges.
Madreiter:
I would reject the word Mittelweg.
I believe that our path is the more dynamic and comprehensive.
In this way, we also avoid costs: for unnecessary technical gadgets, but also social costs that arise when people feel left behind or left behind.
We try to tackle the challenges in their full breadth.
SPIEGEL:
Let's go into detail.
What do you think of these megatrends ...
…Corona?
Madreiter:
A huge, albeit temporary, challenge that made it very clear to us the importance of public spaces in the city.
It will act as an accelerator: to implement digital systems where it makes sense.
But also to create new lounges.
The crisis clearly demonstrated their need.
SPIEGEL:
... Resilience, i.e. resistance?
Madreiter:
The current crisis shows very well that cities have to become more robust.
Historically, we have always had to find the balance between efficiency and resilience.
The example of history in Vienna shows that efficiency alone does not make you happy, why we have excellent drinking water today, straight from the Alps.
Because over 100 years ago city planners were of the opinion that Vienna would soon have four million inhabitants.
They then laid out the water network on this.
But we only stayed about two million.
Today we benefit from an excellent infrastructure.
This shows me that we have to work with reserves in order to be able to react to dynamic developments.
What is Corona today will be climate change tomorrow.
SPIEGEL:
... a good keyword: global warming?
Madreiter:
Probably the greatest challenge that mankind faces in modern times.
It affects cities like Vienna in two dimensions: firstly, it is about climate protection, i.e. reducing CO₂ emissions.
Vienna, for example, wants to be almost climate neutral by 2050.
This is only possible if, for example, the building sector and traffic change significantly.
At the same time, we have to adapt today.
Cities are heating up, the Alpine region has experienced twice the warming since the beginning of industrialization than can be observed globally.
So we have to cool, cool, cool our cities.
The nice thing about it is that climate protection and climate adaptation are largely congruent.
SPIEGEL:
... traffic turnaround?
Madreiter:
I prefer to say mobility
transition
.
It is in full swing in many cities.
The population is far further than we want to see in the administration.
We have been conducting comprehensive social science research on and with the urban population in Vienna for 20 years.
The last survey revealed: 90 percent of Viennese state that they no longer need a private car.
However, many people still have their own car.
This tells me: The traffic turnaround doesn't have to be an eternally polarizing topic.
A profound change is already underway among people, which the administration must now adequately support and implement.
SPIEGEL:
What does that mean in concrete terms?
Madreiter:
We have to create the conditions so that people no longer consider owning a car to be necessary.
We have to rebuild the city so that people can go for a walk, children can get to school by bike, and people can get to the office by subway, tram or bus.
People no longer want to spend a relevant part of their salary on a means of transport that they no longer use.
So the smart question is: Can we give people the mobility they need in the given situation?
When I'm ready, cities suddenly look completely different.
Fewer parking spaces, more open spaces for people, more money for culture, gastronomy, tourism.
SPIEGEL:
Local public transport in Vienna is already considered exemplary.
Yet I still see cars in the city.
Madreiter:
I can certainly say that the next 20 years will bring a major change here.
We have to learn to distinguish between owning a car and using it.
All the signals speak for it.
However, the city must not accompany this with a moral index finger, not with an educational imperative, but with good service: for example the 365-euro annual ticket that we introduced.
"Fewer parking spaces, more open spaces for people, more money for culture, gastronomy, tourism"
SPIEGEL:
In Germany, the one-euro day ticket is viewed critically by many transport companies, for example because the costs and benefits are not in proportion.
Madreiter:
It changed a lot in Vienna.
The flat rate has changed people's minds, suddenly it's worth using public transport - and it pays off more with every trip.
We now have more annual pass holders than cars in the city.
But there is much more to the traffic turnaround: a great network, strict parking management, high costs for the car - and real urban redevelopment.
About seven years ago we rebuilt Mariahilfer Strasse, the largest shopping street in Vienna.
The discussion was extremely polarized, we only got a majority in the referendum for the conversion to a pedestrian zone.
Today practically no one wants to go back to the old state.
SPIEGEL:
So radical solutions after all?
Madreiter:
We asked the citizens beforehand, otherwise we would not have done that.
But it is also clear: All these changes make life more worth living for the individual.
We always discuss corona, climate, traffic under the aspect of renunciation.
However, all of our measures increase happiness in life, as the surveys clearly show.
We need to focus on opportunities.
In relation to each individual, but also to the economy.
We have to get away from the dystopian doom stories and, as a city, tell the narrative of opportunities much, much better.
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