Cars drive capital to gridlock
Transport experts reiterated yesterday that Athens will face serious problems in the next few years unless radical measures are taken to help ease the traffic congestion that is getting worse every year. According to figures presented by experts, traffic on 95 percent of Athens roads will be at saturation point by 2010, from 55 percent of roads currently. The growing number of new cars being added to the capital’s roads is adding to the problem. Every year Athenians buy 150,000 new vehicles, industry data show. Since 1990, the total number of cars on Athens roads has soared by 130 percent, according to recently appointed Transport Minister Costis Hatzidakis. «There are no magic solutions,» said the minister, who stressed that incentives need to be given to commuters to use the growing network of public transport. The government had predicted that by 2008 five in 10 people commuting in the city would use public transport but this goal has not been met. Figures shows that only four in 10 people on a journey use one of the forms of public transport. Solutions that have worked in other European cities will be examined for Athens, added the minister. Experts that gathered at a conference on transport yesterday also pointed to the large number of illegally parked cars as adding to traffic woes. Data show that around 30,000 cars are illegally parked across Athens every day while hundreds of abandoned cars also take up rare parking spaces. Officials from the Municipality of Athens admitted yesterday that a lack of proper policing has resulted in a growing number of car drivers parking illegally.
