“At some point in the near future, we must end them cars in the center of Athens. All of Europe is trying to reduce the space occupied by the car, from the Scandinavian countries to Italy and Spain, and we are immobile there.”

OUR Thanos Vlastos, Professor of Urban and Transport Planning at NTUA and Founder of the Department of Sustainable Mobility, has prepared or directed research for many Greek cities in recent decades. Among them Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan municipality of Athens.

Our discussion begins with how, in his assessment, the closure of Vasilisa Olga will affect the movement in the center. “Pedestrianism of Vasilisa Olga will connect the projects of unification of archaeological sites with the Panathenaic Stadium. This is an important project for the city and recognition of its identity. Not everything belongs to the car – the period of its dominance in relation to the history of Athens is short. According to the logic of those who believe that this creates problems with the movement, let’s reopen the movement to Dionysius the Areopagite, the Apostle Paul and Ermo, ”he replies.

“I’m tired of hearing how heavily blocked the roads are in Athens. Yes, the truth is that Athens is not made for the car. It has small roads, because when it was built, no one wanted to allocate part of their land for the construction of large roads. So the situation will not improve from trying to lighten the car. On the contrary, we will have to see on a concrete basis how we will get him out of Athens. Give the space it occupies to pedestrians, cyclists and greenery. I often hear the argument that in our country people have no alternative because transportation is unreliable. But we make them unreliable. I will give you an example. In many European cities, the tram was used to transform the urban layout: it was placed on the central boulevards and made them pedestrian. The tram is the flagship for service centers. We brought a tram – because the International Olympic Committee asked us for it before the 2004 Games – and we blocked it at the entrance to the center, instead of continuing our course towards the University and Patisia, to give Patisia a breath.”

Bicycles

According to Mr. Vlastos, the debate about sustainable mobility in our country is very limited compared to all other European countries. “Who is discussing the climate crisis in Greece? In Germany, people are looking for ways to reduce their contribution to greenhouse gas emissions in their daily lives. In Greece, if the mayor tries to deny access to IX on the avenue, he is not going to be re-elected. We are the only country in the EU. who forgot the bike. Paris and Milan have changed in a few months. There is no bike path in Athens in the Vas.Olga redevelopment plan, but there is a special route for cars to enter the private car park at Zappeio and the tennis courts across the road. I am very afraid that the only way for Greece to move forward in this area is through pressure from the EU. A few days ago, the European Court of Justice condemned us for the quality of the air in Athens. If we continue like this, more condemnations will follow because Europe has decided to move on.”

The Athens Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan calls for declaring the historic center a car-free zone, after studying transportation (excluding food, taxis, vehicles and access to parking spaces), expanding supervised parking by 1,700 spaces. spaces, the creation of a network of cycle paths and the reconstruction of squares and streets. However, the implementation of the BACS is currently at the discretion of each municipal authority, with the result that many of those already approved in different cities are not being implemented.