According to new from ANA, there will be a three-month ban on traffic in Athens’ center, along with other restrictions. The post-pandemic plan takes advantage of the necessities forced by the pandemic in order to promote a pedestrian-friendly Athens, which has been in the making some years now.
The “Grand Walk of Athens” is now a step closer according to the ministries of Citizen Protection, Health and Interior, which jointly approved Athens municipality’s set of traffic proposals through an inter-ministerial decision (KYA) announced Thursday and published in the Government Gazette on Friday.
The plan entails curtailing central Athens’ traffic flow as part of the new Athens urban development plan to offer citizens and tourists alternative ways of transportation in the capital. Athens mayor Costas Bakoyannis told Athens-Macedonian News Agency (ANA-MPA) last week, the plan is to go in effect from June through August.
The broader area of Plaka as demarcated by Mitropoleos, Ermou, Athinas and Stadiou Streets, and in the section of Ermou Street from Athinas to Agion Asomaton Streets, will be affected. Stadiou will remain open to traffic throughout the summer.
The decision says Panepistimiou, Filellinon, Vasilissis Olgas, Irodou Attikou and Stadiou streets (from Karagiorgi Servias street to Mitropoleos street) will also be included sometime this summer, so as to improve pedestrian traffic and cyclists.
Also, KYA states that these traffic measures agree with the broader preventive measures to contain the spread of Covid-19, and have been approved by the National Public Health Organization (EODY).
Exempt from these traffic restrictions are: members of the government, members of parliament, mayors, governors, army personnel, as well as the Ministry of Health, Civil Protection and medical staff, and the immediate area’s permanent residents. Violating traffic measures carries a 150-euro fine.
Athens plans to develop a 6.8 km pedestrian walk (including the capital’s historical center of Plaka) and will free some 5 hectares of public space for citizens and visitors, including a bicycle lane on Panepistimiou Street.
Source: ANA