Vienna’s first complaint map turns grumbling into planning data

Vienna’s first online complaint map has collected more than 230 entries in nearly two weeks, giving residents a place to anonymously complain about public transport, cycle lanes and other issues, ORF reports.

The map was created by City Layers, a start-up founded by four former students from Croatia and Greece who trained as architects and urban planners at the Vienna University of Technology. The project lets people submit complaints without registering or providing personal information.

Project leader Lovro Koncar-Gamulin said the team saw Viennese grumbling as a way to learn about residents’ everyday experiences. City Layers develops community maps through university research to understand how people experience urban spaces.

The complaints are intended for university researchers as a form of public participation. Municipal departments that are interested can also receive the data. The operators say personal attacks and insults will be filtered out, while other submissions will be published. A report summarising what residents are complaining about is planned every three months, with the first due at the end of the year.