Some developments underway in the countries' transportation infrastructure will have a positive effect in the road safety records of Greece. One such development is the creation of the Metropolitan rail system in the Greater Athens area. Two lines were inaugurated last year and the construction will go ahead with more lines and stations anticipated to be completed by the year 2004 when the next Olympic games will take place in Athens. This year also started the construction of an urban rail in Greece's second City, Thessaloniki. Other developments are the creation of new highways such as the Athens Ring Road (partially opened to traffic recently) and the construction of the northern road axis of Greece ("Egnatia" Highway). The existing main road axis Patra-Athina-Thessaloniki-Evzoni border crossing (PATHE) is partially made a motorway. With the completion of the major road construction road projects, Greece could possess by the year 2006, 2,000km of divided national road network while now there is no more than 800 km. Finally, the strategic plan for road safety management that was completed last March sets a target to decrease fatalities in Greece by 20 per cent by the year 2006 and by 40 per cent by the year 2015. Road sided measures included in the plan are: (1) Black spots treatment; (2) better marking and signalization; (3) use of better materials and techniques for the asphalt paved road network; (4) better illumination by electricity; (5) implementation of road safety audits; and (6) organization of a new directory of Road Safety within the Ministry of EP&PW. This last measure is indeed a precondition for the successful implementation of the above mentioned measures for a better and more forgiving road infrastructure in Greece. (A) For the covering abstract of the conference see ITRD no 207828. The reprints are also available at the web - http://www.vti.se/pdf/reports/K18APart1.pdf; http://www.vti.se/pdf/reports/K18APart2.pdf and http://www.vti.se/pdf/reports/K18APart3.pdf.
Samenvatting