A complete scientific “guide” to sustainable mobility in small and medium-sized Greek tourist islands with a permanent population of up to 50,000 Sustainable Mobility CIVINET Greece – University of Cyprus and the Aegean.
It is a comprehensive “strategy” that aims to analyze and deal with the phenomena of hypertourism and the effects of vehicular traffic on the daily lives of residents, the landscape and the environment of the islands.
A management tool
Sustainable Island Mobility Plans (SIMPs), as the “guides” are called, have already been adopted by the European Commission, which intends to propose them as a central guiding tool for sustainable mobility in island regions.
To date, Greece has adopted the popular GR-Eco Islands initiative, with the aim of transforming small Greek islands into centers of innovation and standards for green economy, energy self-sufficiency, digital innovation and ecological mobility.
“The popular Gr-Eko islands contain a smaller fraction of the solutions proposed under Sustainable Island Mobility Plans (SIMPs), which can make a big difference to any island,” he said. Sims.
Highlights of SVNK
Initially, the Sustainable Island Mobility Plan analyzes the mobility challenges faced by an island with a population of up to 50,000, explains Mr Kosmas Anagnostopoulos, transport expert, urban planner and coordinator of the Sustainable Island Mobility Plans (SIMP) project. Greece has a total of 233 inhabited islands, 108 of which have between 1 and 50,000 permanent residents.
Among others, SVNK:
▪ They come to highlight the huge problem of seasonality, which swells the population during the summer months, even forming city-sized populations on islands without urban infrastructure and urban transport services. During the tourist season, all islands face problems mainly due to their seasonal population, which is often equal to the number of the urban population (up to 8 times the permanent population). Thus, they are called upon to serve specific movements (leisure movements, not work or school) without urban infrastructure and services.
▪ They will also define restricted “ports of movement” and entry/exit times to the islands, which create “bottleneck” events in the ports and the road network around them. In ports, major residential areas and touristic areas (beaches, monuments, attractions, major tourist facilities, areas and evening entertainment centers, etc.), the problems become more acute.
▪ In addition, they will identify and highlight the presence of sensitive natural and cultural environments that do not allow large-scale infrastructure development to serve a significant number of vehicles.
▪ They will document with data that the main mobility problem in the summer is caused by (excessive) tourism, and in the winter by the phenomenon of “transport poverty” and the multiple isolation of island settlements (at the same time from the Greek mainland). such as isolation from the port and/or country of the island).
▪ They will also emphasize the need for research to identify and recognize mobility needs of both permanent residents and different categories of visitors and holidaymakers.
Solutions
Then, after identifying and analyzing the mobility challenges an island faces, the Sustainable Island Mobility Plan proposes a number of solutions, namely:
▪ Aim for less or car-free tourism if possible. Already, significant car restrictions have been adopted for years by islands such as Hydra, Spetses, Antikythera, Agios Efstratios, Gavdos, Diapontia Islands, Nisyros, Sikinos, Symi, Halki and Psara.
▪ Emphasize the need to formulate cheap, fast and flexible solutions that will distinguish between low and high tourism season, as well as different days and hours (for example, pedestrianization of coastal streets in the evening).
▪ Emphasize walking and cycling, especially electric and cargo bikes, using traditional roads and dirt roads in areas of special natural beauty as well as on coastal roads.
▪ To propose technologically intelligent solutions for public transport, as well as to limit the access and parking of motorized vehicles in certain parts of the islands.
▪ Recommend setting a horizontal speed limit of 30 km/h to increase road safety and to restructure the roads accordingly.
▪ Recommend the use of sea transport as part of the public transport system around the islands.
Case studies: Amorgos, Ikaria, Kalymnos, Karpathos, Naxos and Small Cyclades, Symi, Crete (Sfakia), Hydra. In addition, many Greek islands have more than one port where the liner also stops (Amorgos, Ikaria, Karpathos). This connection between two ports of the same island is sometimes used for intra-island movements that cannot be done by road or are not preferred for various reasons.