Navigating Athens has become a daily struggle for residents and visitors alike, as a new report sheds light on the escalating travel congestion in one of Europe’s busiest capitals.
With traffic jams stretching longer and public transport systems straining under the pressure of increasing demand, the report highlights urgent challenges for the city’s infrastructure and its impact on commuters’ daily lives.
According to figures presented on Monday by the National Technical University of Athens Professor Constantinos Kepaptsoglou and the general secretary of the Hellenic Institute of Transportation Engineers (SES), Athens ranks eighth in Europe for the time needed to travel 10 kilometers, which is close to 30 minutes on average.
London occupies first place (33:17 minutes), followed by Dublin (32:45), Barcelona (31:13), Bucharest (31:09), Bordeaux (31:08), Brussels (30:22) and Rome (29:59).
Drivers in Athens spend 1/3 of the day in traffic congestion
Based on the measurements, drivers in both Athens and Thessaloniki spend more than 1/3 of the day (34 percent) in traffic congestion with the two cities ranking 114th and 123rd respectively in the global table.
Thanasis Tsianos, chairman of the Hellenic Institute of Transportation Engineers, said that improving traffic and urban transport conditions in Athens can’t be done through wishful thinking and makeshift proposals.
It is a continuous process that includes studies, coordination, evaluation and significant financial costs. This process was interrupted during the financial crisis. However, he said, there is now a significant increase in travel demand, as expected, and this dramatically highlights the consequences of disinvestment in the transport sector during the financial crisis.
Tsianos said that the existing fixed-rail transportation network (suburban railway, tram, trolley, metro) needs upgrading and must become more attractive, allowing transfers from cars, bicycle parking areas and better bus connections.
On public transport using buses, he called for new express bus routes, along with an extension of the timetable of the routes, an increase of depots so that buses gain traction, better policing of bus lanes, and an increase of the fleet.
Greece considered tolls for Athens
In recent years Greece was considering imposing tolls for vehicles in the center of Athens to combat traffic congestion, but plans have been shelved.
Tolls are seen by some experts as a way to reduce congestion and improve air quality. The measure has been introduced, with variations, in several cities around the world over the last decades.
Singapore is the godfather of congestion pricing systems as the Area Licensing Scheme (ALS), as it is called, was introduced in 1975. Cars with one or two people in them were charged US$1 every time they crossed a line entering Singapore’s central business district during the peak morning period with carpools of more than three people and trucks exempt from the fee.
London is probably the best-known congestion pricing system in the Western world. While more technically complex than Singapore’s system, the London pricing system has had a similar level of success in reducing traffic for the central business district through an intricate series of cameras and transponders.
Other cities such as Stockholm, Milan and Riga, the capital of Latvia, have introduced pricing systems for vehicles.
Implementation of congestion pricing has reduced congestion in urban areas but has also sparked criticism and public discontent. Critics maintain that congestion pricing is not equitable, places an economic burden on neighboring communities, hurts retail businesses and economic activity in general, and represents another tax levy.
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