The woes of pedestrians in Athens

Athenians have never ceased to complain about the lack of respect shown to pedestrians crossing the street, on sidewalks, or by cars parked just about anywhere.

“Getting around the city in a wheelchair or while using a walking stick has never been easy due to narrow or nonexistent sidewalks and arbitrary parking. But now motorbikes are an additional enemy turning the sidewalks into streets and have eliminated one-way streets,” said Danai Dragonea, a resident of Kolonaki and the mother of an 8-month-old baby, among many expressing their frustration to Kathimerini. 

Aware of the existing accessibility problems, the municipality has designated Kerameikos, the Acropolis area and the National Garden as fully accessible areas for pedestrians. 

It has mapped eight routes – four suitable for people with mobility disabilities and four for those with visual impairments. 

Proposed routes are displayed on an interactive map with all possible obstacles as well as ways to avoid them at accessibleroutes.thisisathens.org. 

There is also an audio player widget for the visually impaired.