The urban train leading to the airport was inaugurated also shortly before the olympics. However the ticket price was set so high (8 euro, which became 6 euro after the public outcry) that the absorbed car traffic was negligible (the tolls of the motorway, running in parallel and constructed few years ago, are 2,5 euro for cars and 1,2 euro for motorcycles)
“Attiki odos” connects the city with the airport, but run also through many densely inhabited areas till the other side of the urban agglomeration. The first signs of saturation and sprawl around the airport have already been visible
The neglect for the pedestrians is evident even in nominally pedestrian projects. On the occasion of the olympics, the administration launched an extended program to improve the sidewalks of Athens. In few cases the sidewalks were widened and the result was indeed satisfactory.
Larisis street: whenever the administration decides to really ban motorcycles on sidewalks, it will be indeed a model of how a street should become
But in most cases the improvement was meant to be just the addition of a strip for the blind people, and the hasty replacement of sidewalk pavement. The results were sometimes clumsy and whimsical.
In this case the poor blind people who would dare to try to walk on this fenced “sidewalk” is led through a meander right up to the tree! (the nearby Kifisias street has 3 lanes per direction plus median but no thought to widen these "sidewalks")
Large sums of money have been wasted just to support the administration’s illusion that a sidewalk can become walkable for disabled people by just adding a blinds guide and some curb ramps
This sidewalk is in the trendy “Psiri” area. Even here parking has priority over people for the car-maniac administration
Of course the contradiction, between declared purposes and the fact that no blind or disabled have been shown up to (try to) walk on such “sidewalks”, is too subtle to be sensed by coarse bureaucratic minds or politicians aiming at the deception of their voters.
The bridge on the background is a costly work of a hyped architect, aiming at the beautification of the city, on the occasion of the olympic games. The cars and motorcycle on the foreground is the usual picture in Athens. The administration abandoned every effort to varnish the city on the morrow of the olympic games final day.
A program for the upgrading of the old metro line has been implemented on the occasion of the olympics – a positive undertaking of course. However the needs of pedestrians, i.e. the metro passengers, right outside of the stations were again neglected. For instance, in Victoria square metro station new stairs were added to the inadequate old ones. But they were constructed in such a way, that they occupy the most part of the sidewalk
Victoria square metro station: after exiting from this grandiose staircase, metro passengers are forced to jam through this 80 cm “gorge”. The result is…
…pedestrians, as usually, on the road pavement. Of
course the pedestrianisation of this secondary road (the only feasible solution
under the chosen configuration) is outside the thought possibilities of
car-oriented administrations
Another similar example can be seen in Petralona metro station. A fine overpass is constructed in the framework of the costly old metro line upgrading.
Immediately after the “paradise” of the upgraded station, pedestrians are thrown to the usual “car-hell” of Athens…
But the squalor and car-filth outside the station remained intact.
...obviously the administration considers this sidewalk outside Petralona station wide enough for the pedestrians, so a pole can be placed here. Of course car parking is sacred for them (automobiles “über alles”)