Municipal buses providing free morning transport for schoolchildren, variable speed limits depending on traffic conditions, different schedules for ships arriving at Piraeus and for deliveries, traffic lights controlled by artificial intelligence, and converting Vouliagmenis Avenue into a high-speed road without traffic lights. These are some of the proposals that scientific and professional bodies are preparing to submit to the government to tackle congestion in Attica, which is expected to get progressively worse, particularly as the holiday season approaches.

This was evident on Monday morning, when accidents and rain left major avenues packed with cars for several hours.

The interventions proposed by experts are only one side of the equation. Solutions to traffic congestion are also being provided by projects currently under way or nearing completion, such as the new Metamorfosi exit, which is being completed during this period and is expected to provide some relief for Attica’s roads and the national highway by cutting congestion delays in half.

With the new exit opening to traffic, overall delays are expected to fall to an average of 10 minutes, compared with 20 minutes today. In other words, the time drivers currently lose waiting to exit Attiki Odos onto the national highway is expected to decrease by 50%.

“This is something that should have been done a long time ago,” Transport, Infrastructure and Networks Minister Christos Dimas told Proto Thema. It is one of the challenges that have been successfully addressed—but not the entire battle.

New proposals

Government sources told Proto Thema that “the door remains open” to all organisations when it comes to proposals that could ease congestion in Athens, Thessaloniki and other urban centers. They noted that the prime minister has personally heard and considered these proposals.

So far, as decided at the most recent relevant meeting at the Maximos Mansion, the focus has been on better management of everyday incidents that cause delays, with priority given to Kifisos Avenue.

For example, a traffic police tow truck remains on constant standby, particularly during rush hour, at the exit towards Acharnon Avenue. Arrangements are also in place to remove vehicles promptly when they break down, are involved in minor collisions or encounter similar problems. At the same time, measures are being taken to reduce truck traffic on Kifisos.

Smart traffic lights

Other measures to ease congestion across the Athens basin are expected to be examined during this period.

One proposal involves installing smart traffic lights that use artificial intelligence to read traffic conditions and adjust when they turn green or red, as well as how long each signal remains active, with the aim of preventing congestion.

Professional and scientific organisations, such as the Hellenic Association of Transportation Engineers, have developed more ambitious proposals as well.

One is to abolish the Daktylios, Athens’ traffic-restriction ring, which this year marks 48 years since its pilot implementation in 1979 as a fuel-saving measure.

Experts describe the measure as outdated, noting that it was introduced to reduce smog in Athens. Today, according to the transportation engineers’ proposal, the system is no longer effective and could be modernised by differentiating access according to vehicle emissions, allowing cars with progressively lower emissions—or zero emissions—to circulate in the city centre.

Engineers from the Technical Chamber of Greece (TEE) are working on another proposal that is being piloted in some world capitals to reduce morning traffic.

They suggest that municipalities take responsibility for transporting schoolchildren free of charge, exclusively using municipal public transport buses.

This would ease the congestion of the “7:45 a.m. rush”, when parents make detours and stop briefly to drop their children off at school, causing traffic to back up behind them.

Although the Municipality of Athens is piloting a somewhat similar scheme, several additional details would need to be worked out before the idea could become a reality. One would be a change to the law governing municipal transport services, since buses operated by one municipality are currently prohibited from running routes within the boundaries of other municipalities.

Another proposal would involve adjusting school start times, even by a small amount.

A study by researchers Antonios Georgantas, Stelios Timotheou and Christos G. Panagiotou of the University of Cyprus, submitted for publication in the academic journal Transportation Research, found through simulation that staggering school schedules by just 12 minutes per school—with some starting earlier, others later and some remaining unchanged—was associated with a reduction of up to 17.2% in the total time vehicles spent on the roads.

Other proposals under consideration include removing traffic lights along Vouliagmenis Avenue and converting it into a high-speed road similar to Syngrou Avenue. The Hellenic Association of Transportation Engineers has highlighted the need to upgrade Vouliagmenis Avenue with grade-separated interchanges.

The proposals also include adding smart traffic lights. This solution has been successfully implemented in Thessaloniki, making it a more persuasive option for Athens as well. An artificial intelligence system linked to traffic cameras would monitor traffic in real time and adjust the duration of traffic signals accordingly.

Heavy trucks

Naturally, the measure proposed by the largest number of organisations is to change delivery schedules.

The proposal is to coordinate ship arrivals so that vessels approach the port of Piraeus at specific times, avoiding the traffic gridlock caused by articulated lorries.

Similarly, deliveries to shops, supermarkets and other businesses should take place at different times from those currently used, so that vehicle traffic on the roads of the Athens basin is not further burdened.

Transportation engineers and civil engineers are also proposing the creation of cycle lanes and pedestrian areas, along with further investment in public transport to make it more attractive and persuade people to leave their cars at home.

To achieve this, public transport needs frequent services, new vehicles, sufficient space for passengers and a reliable, short journey time to their destination.

The government’s long-term proposals and existing plans include projects such as new bypass roads, completion of Metro Line 4 and other infrastructure developments.

By the end of 2026, drivers exiting Attiki Odos towards Lamia at Metamorfosi will have two exits instead of one. This is the first in a series of interventions expected to provide some relief for the Athens basin.

The Metamorfosi interchange is where Attiki Odos meets the Athens–Lamia national highway. Until now, two traffic streams from different directions—one from the airport and the other from Elefsina—have converged at this exit into a single lane, creating traffic chaos.

Drivers coming from Eleftherios Venizelos Airport have to stop and give way to those arriving from Elefsina. The latter, in turn, slow down to avoid causing an accident.

The result is queues stretching three to four kilometres during rush hour, with waiting times of at least half an hour.

The solution is relatively small in scale. Two separate exits are being constructed approximately 150 metres apart, allowing each traffic stream to enter the national highway through its own lane.

The cost, approximately €2.5 million to €3 million, will be covered by the state, while the ministry has stated that the intervention will not affect toll charges.

By constructing a new exit that separates drivers approaching from different directions, the Metamorfosi interchange will be relieved of congestion, improving traffic flow at the location by at least 50%.

In this way, one of the capital’s many problem areas will have a solution checked off the list.

The new exit is expected to reduce delays for traffic coming from Elefsina from 18 to nine minutes, and for traffic coming from the airport from 22 to 11 minutes. The overall average delay is expected to fall from 20 to 10 minutes.

Kifisos bypass

The expected relief will benefit not only Attiki Odos but also the national highway.

As experts explain, once the exit towards Lamia can clear traffic at a steadier rate, successive slowdowns on the national highway will decrease, particularly during the first few kilometres after Metamorfosi, where traffic frequently grinds to a halt.

The Metamorfosi exit is part of a broader package of interventions, including the triple interchange at Skaramangas. Together, these projects could distribute heavy-vehicle traffic more effectively and reduce the concentration of trucks within the urban area.

The government is also examining other projects, including a bypass for Kifisos and an extension of Attiki Odos towards Rafina and Lavrio, so that the new Metamorfosi exit can function as part of an integrated network of solutions.

The Skaramangas interchange

On the western side of the Athens basin, the project about to begin is the triple interchange at Skaramangas.

The contract was signed on 13 July in the presence of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, with the METKA–Domiki Kritis consortium appointed as contractor.

The contract is worth approximately €60 million, and construction is scheduled to take 36 months from the date of signing. Under this timetable, the project is expected to be delivered in the summer of 2029.

Despite its name, the project is not a single interchange but a package of interventions:

• Completion of the final 1.5-kilometre section of the Western Aigaleo Ring Road.
• Construction of a grade-separated partial interchange at Skaramangas, connecting the Western Aigaleo Ring Road with the Athens–Corinth national highway.
• Upgrading the Athens–Corinth highway to three lanes in each direction along the Schisto–Skaramangas section.
• Construction of a grade-separated Shipyards interchange on Schistou Avenue, replacing the signal-controlled junction with Palaska.

Approximately 100,000 vehicles pass through the area every day, of which 20,000 are trucks.

A significant proportion of these trucks serve the port of Piraeus and the industrial zones of Thriasio. The government is presenting the project primarily as a way to give these vehicles direct access to Attiki Odos, preventing them from entering the urban road network.

According to the ministry’s simulations, average speeds in the area will increase from 28 to 47 km/h.

The projected time savings amount to 1,600 hours per day for passenger vehicles and 490 hours for trucks.

A simple calculation illustrates what this means for individual drivers. The 1,600 hours amount to 96,000 minutes. Divided among approximately 80,000 passenger vehicles per day, this works out to about 1.2 minutes saved per journey.

For trucks, 29,400 minutes divided among 20,000 vehicles amounts to approximately 1.5 minutes per truck.

An unrelenting nightmare

Can these measures save us from this nightmare?

“They simply buy us a little time,” transportation engineers say, stressing that road congestion will continue to worsen as time goes on.

According to data from GPS company TomTom, Athens had an average congestion level of 44% in 2025, with an average speed of 29.3 km/h.

Compare that with the morning rush hour on the previous Thursday, 22 October, between 8:26 and 8:55 a.m. During that period, congestion reached 84%, while the average speed fell to 16.9 km/h.

During the period examined, TomTom recorded 166 traffic jams with a combined length of 76.8 kilometres. The average driver in the Athens basin needed 15 minutes to travel just 4.2 kilometres.

George Yannis, professor and director of the Transportation Planning and Engineering Division at the National Technical University of Athens, has said that the situation will deteriorate over the next two to three years.

Thanasis Tsianos, president of the Hellenic Association of Transportation Engineers, agrees. He has explained that as the number of cars increases—with an additional 120,000 vehicles entering the roads every year—the average speed continues to fall.

The road network is currently expected to accommodate between four and six million vehicles, despite having been designed to handle just two million.

Today, average vehicle speeds during rush hour do not exceed 17 km/h. By 2027, they are expected to fall by as much as another 5 km/h, while the duration and length, in kilometres, of traffic jams could more than double over the course of a decade, extending the hours during which congestion is at its worst.