Need for rational use of the city’s Olympic Games infrastructure dowry
Transport experts believe that even the small increase of 3.5 percent in the number of people using public transport is positive. «We have to make rational use of the infrastructure left to us after the Olympic Games,» said Panayiotis Papadakos, head of the Association of Greek Transport Experts. «We need more coordinated efforts. A year after the Games, the state still has no unified way of setting priorities. The dilemma of whether to use one’s car or public transport affects everyone. The state has not decided whether to make it easy or difficult for private cars in the city center. The steps already taken are good but not enough. The city’s streets are still congested. Traffic volume is increasing annually by about 10 percent, since 130,000-150,000 new cars go on the roads every year.» Apart from new measures such as express buses and unified tickets, it is the policing of bus lanes that has greatly improved traffic flow, even though the goal of 50 kilometers of special lanes is far short of the current 450km in Paris or 500km in London. What needs to be done now is to regulate the coordination between ministries. At the moment, traffic police facilitate the entry of private cars into the city center every morning, while the Transport and Environment ministries are trying to encourage the use of public transport.
