The city of Salzburg is testing recommendations from the RADBEST research project to increase road safety in constricted road situations. Different road markings will be applied to Nußdorferstraße in two phases. After a familiarization phase with a research bicycle, Salzburg Research will test the overtaking distances between motor vehicles and bicycles.

For many people in Salzburg, cycling is part of everyday life. The city has a well-developed network of bike paths. However, in many places, it is not possible to construct cycling facilities wide enough to comply with the guidelines due to existing road widths. Without suitable alternative routes, these sections of road remain part of the city’s cycling network. The Nußdorferstraße real-world laboratory, operated by the mobility laboratory zukunftswege.at in cooperation with Salzburg Research and con.sens mobilitätsdesign, is testing the effects of new road markings on the overtaking distance between motor vehicles and cyclists on behalf of the city and province of Salzburg.

The markings for the first part of the test phase were installed on the night of May 14th.

Objectives

The cycling routes recommended in the RADBEST project will be tested on sections of Nußdorferstraße between the Bräuhausstraße intersection and the Moosstraße roundabout, extending to the intersection with Leopoldskronstraße. The city of Salzburg aims to improve the quality of the cycling infrastructure and, consequently, the safety of cyclists in the city.

The cycle lanes are marked on the ground with road markings. This is intended to draw the attention of drivers to potential cyclists and raise their awareness.

The results should provide the city of Salzburg’s planning department with a scientifically sound basis for increasing road safety for cyclists on narrow roads in the future.

Recommendations from the RADBEST research project

In the RADBEST research project, Salzburg Research and its partners recorded and analyzed over 7,000 overtaking maneuvers between motor vehicles and cyclists on 22 test routes in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. They then derived specific recommendations for action in congested road situations in these three countries.

The results showed that infrastructure in constricted conditions must communicate more clearly, for example, through sharrows, large pictograms, or wide multipurpose lanes with narrow core lanes, to ensure the minimum overtaking distance. Examples from other states show that drivers maintain greater distances thanks to the recommended road markings.

These recommendations are currently being tested in the real-world laboratory on Nußdorferstraße in Salzburg.

Test position structure

The Nußdorferstraße is divided into two test sections:

• Section 1 runs from the intersection with Bräuhausstraße to the traffic circle at Moosstraße.
• Section 2 runs from the Moosstraße roundabout to the intersection with Leopoldskronstraße.

Section 1: Using Multi-Purpose Strips for Ground Marking

Phase 1: from May 2025

For the first test phase, 2-meter-wide multipurpose lanes with bicycle pictograms will be installed between Moosstraße and Bräuhausstraße. A 3-meter-wide core lane will remain in the middle of the roadway.

Phase 2: from August 2025

The second test position involves adding red block markings to the existing multipurpose lanes and cycle pictograms.

Section 2: Floor Marking with Pictograms and Sharrows

Phase 1: from May 2025

Section 1 tests the effect of large wheel pictograms and sharrows on road safety. These pictograms and sharrows are placed on the road at approximately 25-meter intervals.

Phase 2: from August 2025

The second test position involves adding red block markings to the existing wheel pictograms and sharrows.

Rides with the research bike

Salzburg Research will test different marking variants by riding a research bicycle. The bicycle is equipped with LiDAR sensors, cameras, and other sensors that can record the entire overtaking process in three dimensions. A total of 160 overtaking maneuvers will be recorded and analyzed to objectively test the effects of the different markings on the safety of cyclists on Nußdorferstraße.

More information: https://www.zukunftswege.at/teststrecke/