The SUV blight
Aug. 3rd, 2006 03:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bktheirregularTurns out the neighborhood where I'm sleeping and working is one of the ritzier ones in Athens. Spotted a Porsche coupe coming out of a side street ... followed by a Porsche SUV.
Yes, the SUV blight has hit the Eastern Mediterranean.
In a way, it's even worse here - partly because of the geography of Athens. The city's surrounded on three sides by mountains, and on the fourth side, the wind from the Aegean blows in. What this does is stack up the air, creating smog buildup.
It's gotten bad enough that they've resorted to desperation measures to cut down on automotive traffic in Athens during the summer: whether you can drive in downtown literally depends on the number on your license plate. Seriously. If you've got a plate ending in an even number, then there's three days a week you're not allowed to take your car into the city. Odd number plate, three other days. I don't know how they balance the seventh day.
They do make exceptions for hybrid-electric cars, though. Not that I've seen any on the streets. (Actually, they're getting to be fairly common on the streets of New York; Athens must be lagging. Though they do have electric buses - not hybrids, but buses that get their power from overhanging power lines.)
Yes, the SUV blight has hit the Eastern Mediterranean.
In a way, it's even worse here - partly because of the geography of Athens. The city's surrounded on three sides by mountains, and on the fourth side, the wind from the Aegean blows in. What this does is stack up the air, creating smog buildup.
It's gotten bad enough that they've resorted to desperation measures to cut down on automotive traffic in Athens during the summer: whether you can drive in downtown literally depends on the number on your license plate. Seriously. If you've got a plate ending in an even number, then there's three days a week you're not allowed to take your car into the city. Odd number plate, three other days. I don't know how they balance the seventh day.
They do make exceptions for hybrid-electric cars, though. Not that I've seen any on the streets. (Actually, they're getting to be fairly common on the streets of New York; Athens must be lagging. Though they do have electric buses - not hybrids, but buses that get their power from overhanging power lines.)
