The problem of traffic in Thessaloniki:

Plans in progress, benefits, results and

the citizens role

2nd GENERAL LYCEUM OF POLICHNI

THESSALONIKI – GREECE

NIKIVELOU AIMILIA

PISTOFIDI THEODORA
 DESCRIPTION
The greatest problem in our city is traffic jam and its impacts on our
life.
It is important to present not only the current situation, but also the
infrastructure works that have been planned, or are under construction
(subway, submarine road).

we will try to
highlight...
how the civil works in our city, are scheduled and constructed
who decides and acts
what’s the citizens’ role in the whole procedure
and evaluate their effectiveness, through a vision and sustainable
Thessaloniki, with a better quality of life.
 EXPLAIN
Taking into consideration the following...
.
1.Hundreds of vehicles stuck in a
traffic jam every day, with average
speed at peak hours almost equaling to
walking speed (6 km/h).
2. Thessaloniki, has no access to
“guided” means of mass
transportation, but has hundreds of
vehicles parked in double row,
strangling its road.
 EXPLAIN
3. Thessaloniki is the city with the
heaviest air pollution, compared to all
middle and large sized cities of the
E.U. (pm>50μg/m3 )

4. The buses, the city’s only means of

mass transportation, for the last 25
years, functioning with no considerable
change in number or way of operation,
in a metropolitan area, that has been
multiplied in both , area and population
 EXPLAIN

We chose to focus on the two big civil works ...

The subway
The submarine road

that promise to solve the problems mentioned before

 OBJECTIVES AND TARGETS
the subway ...

We sought out information concerning its planning, basic

characteristics and the level of progress.
We pointed out the circulatory benefits:
1.reduction of traffic in the city center
2. rise of the average vehicles speed at peak hours
3. reduction of the average transportation time.
 OBJECTIVES AND TARGETS

We listed environmental and urban planning benefits:

1. reduction in fuel consumption
2. reduction in emission of air pollution from vehicular traffic by 35-40%
3. creation of pedestrian walkways in the city center.
 OBJECTIVES AND TARGETS
the submarine road ...

we got informed on the main specification of this work

as well as, the record of the long term arguments between part of

the citizens and the work’s administrators.

This conflict is due to considerable environmental and urban

planning disturbances it causes to part of the city, and the whole

metropolitan area as well.

 OBJECTIVES AND TARGETS
Our plan is aiming at highlighting
the improvements, that should be done
to both of these works, and consider
the importance of active citizens’
participation in planning and designing
of important works, that are going to
change the face of their city.
OBJECTIVES AND TARGETS
we focused on the following subjects...

Subway

1. the benefits from the subway construction will be multiplied,

extending it to the north-western and eastern parts of the city, since
the currently designed length is insufficient

2. since, along with the subway construction, a large archeological

excavation takes place in the city, this is our big chance to combine
the construction of the underground with the protection and
spotlighting of our rich archeological past.
OBJECTIVES AND TARGETS
submarine road

we regarded as very important the following citizen’s objections:

a. difficulty of citizen’s access to the coast, and construction of high
height funnels
b. destruction of the existing city parks
c. tolls are to be placed
d. change of the coastal road into double direction. As a consequence, it
has to be widened by 14 m against parks and green areas.
 OBJECTIVES AND TARGETS
submarine road

e. Its submarine part is rather small, whereas the surface one is big
and ends up in the city center. This will prone to create traffic jam
in the exit

f. due to the deafening noise coming from vehicles, sound screens

will be placed alongside the coastal road, that will conceal once and
for all, visibility to the sea for the citizens.
 RESULTS

Our team has taken action with consideration to fulfilling three criteria:

Prevention: in regards to problems that may rise

Respect: of citizen’s right to clean environment, access to parks and

better quality of life

Protection: of natural, historical and social status quo.

 RESULTS
Subway...

, We contacted the municipalities

involved in the subway’s extension
and registered their opinions

We did exactly the same thing

with municipalities that are not
included in it.
 RESULTS
We discussed with Urban Bus
Organization’s management
We drew a map of our own, to
connect bus routes with the designed
subway path, aiming at providing the
best possible services to citizens in the
whole metropolitan area that is in both,
centre and suburbs, where we noted
down the arising benefits on natural,
historical and social environment.
 RESULTS
Submarine road...

We contacted the local authorities that

supported the work’s planning.

We sought out to see how informed

the citizens were about this work.

We created a questionnaire and

analyzed the results

The majority of citizens disregard the

cornerstone points of the work’s planning.
RESULTS
Based on the information available to us
we created a drawing, which presented a
coastal view of the city, after the
construction of the submarine road and
hung it up in a central position in the city
challenging citizens to debate about it,
and express their opinion anonymously,
on a form.

We recorded the whole project, classified

the citizens’ feedbacks and presented the
results in an event.
 Conclusions...
Evaluating our efforts:

We believe that we highlighted,

through our activities,

the importance of citizens’

awareness and participation,

as an essential prerequisite of a
sustainable city development, fulfilling
all three criteria:

prevention, respect and protection.

 SPONSORS

MUNICIPALITY
OF
EFKARPIA