Besides the problems induced by car traffic, pedestrians in Athens have to deal also with the aggressiveness of the motorcycles, which are deliberately favoured by the greek administration

Motorcycles in Athens can move virtually unbothered on sidewalks...

...squares (on the background the city hall),...

..."pedestrianised streets", parks, and virtually everywhere on the pedestrian infrastructure.

They are free to park everywhere and block pedestrian crossings...

...The police as usual has no objection.

A single motorcycle is enough to block a long stretch of sidewalk, ...

... but usually there are more than one to be seen.

The parks of Athens have been since many years ago neglected and left without any maintenance and conservation. This is what you are warned if you want to enter the national garden, one of the two major parks in the central area of Athens.

A large part of this park has been altered during the last years into a free of charge parking area for some privileged.

This is the situation in Pedion Areos, the other important park of Athens, where cars and motorcycles are attracted from commercial manifestations.

This fence is in place grace to the police violence. Outraged inhabitants of the surrounding areas tore down the fences which blocked most of the entrances of the park. However the administration set up again the fences and reduced to half the entrances of the park. According to the administration, backed also from a court decision, it is a trivial matter for elderly people, parents with strollers and the other pedestrians who use or cross the park, to walk an additional 300 meters to enter in the park (and probably another 300 to exit), through...

..."sidewalks" like this one. The buildings on the background are built illegally inside the park, but the administration denies to apply the law and to demolish them. The locals accuse the administration that, pressed by economic interests, has long term plans to change this park into a complex of shops, garages, cafes and other lucrative activities, and for this reason encourages illegal building and the destruction of vegetation. For more details look on the site they have set up.