Urban Regeneration in Historic Downtown Areas: An Ex-Ante Evaluation of Traffic Impacts in Athens, Greece

Urban regeneration projects in modern metropolitan areas often incorporate major changes in the structure and operations of a city's transportation system. In this paper we discuss the traffic impacts of such a project—the pedestrianization of a major arterial, in the Athens, Greece, downtown area—by applying an ex-ante evaluation of the project on a city-wide level. A scenario planning approach is adopted to represent post-project traffic conditions. Findings indicate that although in the short-run traffic conditions will worsen, a potential traffic evaporation resulting from the project could significantly improve traffic and environmental conditions in the Athens downtown area.