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Athens Mayor Proposes 16 Measures to Tackle Greek Capital’s Traffic
Posted On 01 Aug 2023
Photo source: Athens Municipality.
The Mayor of Athens, Kostas Bakoyannis, recently presented a 16-proposal package to combat traffic congestion in the Greek capital and improve pedestrian and driver safety.
Bakoyannis said that the current traffic situation in Athens is “unbearable” and that a “change of model” is needed to regulate it.
During his meeting with the Infrastructure and Transport Minister Christos Staikouras, the mayor underlined the need to create a new body that will oversee traffic management in Athens and collaborate with related traffic planning and enforcement authorities.
“A new plan, strong collaboration and other complementary actions, can help us bring order to the chaos that reigns on the streets of the capital,” Bakoyannis added.
Infrastructure and Transport Minister Christos Staikouras with Athens Mayor Kostas Bakoyannis. Photo source: Athens Municipality.
The proposals include the following, among others :
- A substantial improvement in public transport, including the introduction of new bus lines, and the creation of more dedicated bus lanes.
- A greater presence of traffic police on the city’s roads, with a focus on enforcing traffic laws and reducing speeding to 30 km/h on all municipal roads except avenues and highways.
- The strengthening of infrastructure to support alternative transport, such as the construction of more bicycle lanes and pedestrian walkways.
- The expansion of the city’s green ring road network and the use of new technologies monitoring traffic, parking, etc.
- The creation of a parking and unloading map for tourist buses, taxis, lories, etc.
- The implementation of carsharing.
According to municipal sources, traffic in Athens today has exceeded pre-crisis levels (2009-2010) and is on the rise making a new traffic management model a top priority that can positively affect the daily life of the city’s residents and visitors.
Elections near and BS flourishes! Sidewalks in terrible shape with illegal parkers everywhere make walking a challenge anywhere in Athens. Trolley schedules are online but rarely followed—even at originating stops. Loud exhausts and racing motorcycles endanger everyone. Tram schedules are a continuing mystery. And our Mayor just sees some issues now? What, did he just arrive in Athens last week?
Why do we need extra bus lanes? Are the existing bus lanes even utilized enough?
Does the frequency of the current bus-fleet justify a dedicated lane?
Athens desperately needs the new metro line, and until then, if budget justifies it, modernize the current bus-fleet and add new buses.
I would focus more on putting motorcycles’ circulation under control, than on carsharing.
Someone that’s not used at driving in the Athenian madness, can’t deal with the chaos caused by the countless and out-of-control motorcycles in the city. Our driving culture resembles more of Cairo than Berlin, so it requires equivalent measures.
Eg. Marrakech uses a dedicated smaller motorcycles’ lane. Why not in Athens?
Do we want a more functional capital city? Imagine all the main roads of Athens having:
-a bike lane
-a motorcycle lane
-a bus lane
-cars’ lanes
Food for thought.
All I can see is proposals for the Mayor to make more money from works & projects that definately won’t help the city at all.
Just as the fellow Kolonaki resident above said: everything is way beyond reasoning.
As a newcomer in this city, recently married to, and becoming a mother of, a Greek citizens, I care deeply for the quality of life of my family and fellow Athenians, but I can’t understand how little initiative has been done to make life for Kolonaki families more humane. Raising a child in this area and moving around with a stroller in Kolonaki streets is against logical reasoning. I don’t know where to start. No green areas, no benches for breastfeeding, not enough playgrounds, no trashcans, no ramps for stroller Wheels. From French Institute to Kolonaki square, for any mom who’s pushing the stroller and needs to change a diaper, the only place to do it is in the changing room of H&M in Skuta street. Main church square as All other places with benches are useless during moskito season and if feeding or breastfeeding is necessary, there is simply nowhere to go except far away to Zapio park or back home. Small shade of small trees gives no release from the sunburns… the Vegetation choice and it’s location that shortens already narrow pedestrian sides make many moms forced to push strollers on the streets.
The mayor proposal of “The strengthening of infrastructure to support alternative transport, such as the construction of more bicycle lanes and pedestrian walkways” must start from Kolonaki as this obviously old-people-only area is inhumanely uninclusive.
I wish there is more elaborate presentation about the future of Kolonaki as living here will be impossible for anyone who plans to have a family.
It that was the game from the beginning and families are not welcome, if there is no intention to have at least 5 square meters of grass and shade for babies who are growing up here, then maybe it’s better to sell it all to Chinese workers and turn the whole area in their marketplace, as current profit oriented, antisustainable regulations for this area will devastate the people who need the biggest support from the system which are young families.
Place trash cans!
Is that so hard?
Or mothers have to carry dirty dipers to the bakery?
Replace sport jim studios with kindergartens!
Or hardworking bodybuilders are to lazy to worm up running a bit furder then 4 minutes to the nearest Jim?
Clean and make public playground areas functional!
Or babies don’t need to sit on a grass?
Google how other countries are doing it?
Or the call for help to design a more inclusive neighborhood to underprivileged village youth is necessary to design (and first of all understand the importance of) natural green spaces for happy childhood?
You are absolutely right but you are in big danger of getting ridiculed from people living in unbelievably terrible neighbourhoods that lack basic infrastructure. As far as the Chinese…there are more Greeks, Russians, Arabs in Hampstead than actual English Properties change hands subject to…wallets!! Greece generally speaking is probably one of the worst “value for money” places to reside, high taxation, NO infrastructure, NO public services, NON existant health service, no ambulances, no firefighters no, no, no….Sad but true.
Yeah, right. He had 4 years to implement all of this, but he just happened to remember it a mere 8 weeks before the municipal elections.
A new body to regulate traffic in Athens and hire more client voters. The clientist political system at work. The mayor discovered the problem two- three months before the local elections. Classic.