Straining to squeeze his taxi between two hulking trucks blocking an Athens street, 66-year-old cabbie Damianos says he's never seen traffic congestion in the Greek capital this bad. "It's unbearable," groans the veteran who has been behind the wheel the past 14 years. A mishmash of local traffic plans combined with a burgeoning fleet of cars have worsened the gridlock.
Now the city is counting on new technologies, expanded public transport and eventually a single traffic authority to bring some relief -- but improvement will not come fast. During rush hour, queues several kilometres long form on Kifissos and Attiki Odos, the main motorways into the capital of 3.8 million -- and inner streets are not much better off.
An April survey by pollsters Opinion Poll showed that Athenians consider congestion and parking the second gravest concern in the capital, behind cleanliness. The daily grind is monitored by an agency tucked away on a tiny Athens street, barely wide enough for a van. The capital's traffic control hub manages circulation across 66 municipalities.
Congestion in Athens is a "significant problem", concedes the hub's manager Konstantinos Iaveris, a road safety instructor and former rally driver. The control centre's main fixture is a large videowall flicking real-time shots of key junctions in the capital. Connected to over 200 cameras and some 550 sensors citywide, the hub operates some 2,000 traffic lights across the greater Athens area.
Since it was introduced in J.
