Pressure to start pedestrianization of Panepistimou
Work on pedestrianizing one of downtown Athens’s main thoroughfares, Panepistimiou Street, has to begin by next summer with the aim of being completed by the end of 2015 if Greece is going to be able to tap 80 million euros of European Union funding, experts warned on Thursday.
Two professors from the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), Panayiotis Tournikiotis and Matthaios Karlaftis, discussed aspects of the project during an event in Athens on Thursday, a few days ahead of the winner of the architectural competition, known as “Rethink Athens,” to redesign Panepistimiou Street is announced.
The academics said 120,000 vehicles a day use the road and its pedestrianization will require changes to traffic flows in Athens.
