FOTOGRAFIA: Pre-Chalk Outlines

Take a good look at this because you'll rarely see it in Greece: no cars, motorcycles, trucks or vehicles screaming the streets, pedestrian walkways and the odd sidewalk when they're in a rush. It was all part of World Carfree Day on Sept. 22. In Thessaloniki, the country's second-largest city, bicyclists took to the sea front at sunset because riding on the streets would have been a suicide wish where they are targets, as Greeks, as they do laws they don't like (which is most of them) essentially ignored Carfree Day the same way they ignore Smokefree Day and Corruption-Free Decade. Thessaloniki did provide some empty streets for the symbolism in a bid to promote use of public transport (there's no subway yet in the city) cycling and walking as an alternative to modern societies' growing dependence on the car as a means of transport. Athens abandoned the idea of having bicycle lines, not wanting to have a body count.

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