Congestion on the rise in Athens
The average speed of cars traveling in Athens during peak traffic has dropped by 10 percent this year due to a growing number of vehicles choking the capital’s roads, experts said yesterday. Data from the Hellenic Institute of Transportation Engineers (SES) show that drivers on many of Athens’s roads are kept to a speed of 9 kilometers per hour due to heavy traffic. Some of the roads where conditions were worst included Alexandras, Mesogeion and Kifissias avenues. Data show incidents in which cars needed 45 minutes to travel 5 kilometers on Kifissias Avenue from the junction with Katehaki Avenue to Syntagma Square in the city center. Transport experts have been warning government officials that if no new measures are taken soon, then the Attica region will be overflowing with cars and it will be a lot more difficult to implement improvements. Factors that further burden the traffic system include car accidents, protest marches and bad weather.
