Greece without transport: 72% hardly travel by MMM

New research Greenpeace And Oeko-Institut showed unpleasant for Greece picture: public transport in the country remains weak, inconvenient and virtually inaccessible for many. As a result, people are forced to hold on to their car not because life is good, but because otherwise they simply won’t get there.

Report Greenpeace “Access Denied: Transport Poverty in Europe” shows: in Europe up to 56% citizens claim that they have virtually no access to public transport in their area. Approximately 90% In European countries, more than half of the population does not use it regularly.

For Greece the data is particularly painful. 72% Residents of the country either do not use public transport at all, or do so less than once a month. It is only driven daily 7% Greeks For a country that has been talking about a green transition for years, this looks a bit like a marathon runner with a cigarette at the start line.

Greece is the leader in forced car ownership

The toughest indicator is 22.4% Greek citizens are forced to have a car. This is the highest figure in Europe compared to the European average 6.4%. That is, for many, a car is not comfort, not status, and not a love of traffic jams, but the only way to get to work, the doctor, school or store.

At the same time, part of the population cannot afford a car, and travel costs for 14.5% residents of Greece are becoming a serious burden. It turns out to be a wonderful trap: you can’t live without a car, you can’t cope with a car. State transport policy, as usual, is somewhere nearby, but not at the bus stop.

The study also highlights the gap between cities, towns and rural areas. In Greek cities, the travel time situation looks better than the European average, but in towns and rural areas the problems are noticeably worse.

Not transport, but a social problem

Greenpeace calls it “transport poverty”. It’s not just about inconvenient buses or rare routes. When a person cannot get to work, hospital or school, they are cut off from basic opportunities.

The organization calls on governments to invest in accessible, safe and reliable public transport, expand the rail network, introduce social and climate tickets, and plan transport not as a residual, but as part of normal life.

Greek office representative Greenpeace Kostas Kaloudis stated that Greece is far behind in public transport infrastructure. According to him, traffic jams, pollution and dependence on personal cars continue to grow, and the country needs a national commitment to the development of railways, rail transport and MMM.

Editorial comment

For Greece This is not just an environmental report. This is the diagnosis. For decades the country pretended that personal car will solve everything: the functioning of transport, the weakness of the regions, the lack of trains, the chaos of the suburbs and eternal traffic jams. I haven’t decided.

When almost three-quarters of residents hardly use public transport, it is not a matter of habit. This is an infrastructure failure. If there is no bus, there are few trains, the routes are inconvenient, and the car is expensive, the citizen finds himself hostage to a system that no one really built.

Greece needs more than just more beautiful words about green crossingbut normal trains, buses, transfers and tariffs. Because without public transport, the country does not get freedom of movement, but a traffic jam on a national scale.

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