Hydra: The Greek Island That Banned Wheels
(Image credit: f8grapher/Getty Images)
More and more places around the world are trying to reduce their dependence on automobiles. What lessons can we learn from places we didn’t allow in the first place?
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On my last morning at Hydra, I woke up early and took a walk down to the water’s edge to watch the weekly deliveries. Anchored in the stone harbor walls were barges carrying islander orders from the mainland. Patiently queuing up to board the boat were a few donkeys. A group of three or her four boarded the ship and returned minutes later with household goods, luggage and even bags of cement in woven baskets on their backs. The donkey drivers – all mustachioed island men – quickly led their charge down an alley away from the harbor and disappeared from sight.
Hydra’s traditional reliance on donkeys for transportation dates back to a 1950s presidential decree intended to preserve the architecture and character of the Greek island. It includes a rule that no wheeled vehicles can be used: cars, motorcycles, or even bicycles. The town is built on a steep amphitheater-like hill rising from a horseshoe-shaped harbour, so donkeys are the only means of transportation that can climb the steep steps and narrow alleys that lead to the homes of many residents.
Local governments around the world are now looking for ways to reduce their reliance on private vehicles, and even ban private vehicles entirely in certain parts of cities. In fact, the Borough of London, where I live, recently introduced “low traffic areas”. The plan is to use license plate recognition cameras to limit through traffic and allow only residents to drive. So, towards the end of our island-hopping vacation around the Greek islands, I was intrigued by what it was like to be in a place where cars were never allowed.
Donkeys are the only way to move supplies through the town’s steep hills and alleys (Credit: Molly Dailide)
On first impressions, car-free island life was idyllic. In towns on other Greek islands, they were regularly shoved against the walls of unpaved roads, waiting for mopeds to pass by. Hydra, by contrast, allowed me to wander at my own pace admiring the whitewashed walls, the citrus and pomegranate trees in the garden, and the pink bougainvillea cascading into a pretty square surrounded by buildings with red pantile roofs. .
exception to the rule
Despite the executive order, visitors to the island may occasionally see a small number of vehicles, including the town’s garbage truck. Children up to the age of 12 can ride bikes, although adults are prohibited. However, you can only ride a bicycle during the winter, not during the summer when it is crowded with tourists.
It was also very quiet. There are no screeching breaks or roaring engines typical of other towns and cities. Occasionally there was the hooting of donkeys and the chiming of church bells, but otherwise silence reigned.
The scale of the city also felt very human. Walking through the labyrinth of narrow streets and alleyways overlooking the port, I often saw friends and neighbors greeting, chatting and gossiping in the middle of the road. One evening, while I was having a beer by the harbor, a group of children walked past my table, hitting each other with balloons. Even the myriad feral cats familiar to the Greek islands seemed unusually relaxed.
I am not the first outsider fascinated by Hydra, which has a long history of tourism and has also attracted bohemian sets. Canadian songwriter Leonard Cohen famously purchased a home here in his 1960s and wrote “Bird on a Wire” during his stay. Dina Adamopoulou, who works at Hydra’s historical archives, said several painters had also visited, including Picasso, Chagall, and countless Greek artists.
Known for its peace and tranquility, Hydra has long attracted tourists (Credit: Anton Petrus/Getty Images)
For tourists like me, Hydra is a nice place to visit as it is car-free. But what about the roughly 3,000 people who actually live here? How do places work in the modern world without wheeled transportation?
Kelsey Edwards, a British woman who has lived in Hydra for more than 20 years and runs Hydra Direct, a local information and real estate website, said, “We are regularly on fire.” In the summer, firefighting planes come from the mainland and have to dump water on the wildfires.” Edwards says much of the island is inaccessible due to lack of roads, so local volunteer firefighting groups have their own. They explained that they could not put out the fire on their own. Even when a fire breaks out near the town of Hydra itself, the only significant population center, “everybody has to run and manually bring water to put out the fire”.
And fires aren’t the only obstacle that the lack of vehicles poses. “Don’t just dial [emergency services] In the event of an emergency, getting to a small medical center in town can be very difficult, especially for those who live on the steep slopes of hills. They are taken off on stretchers or placed on the backs of donkeys, where they can be seen by medical workers.
Hydra’s car ban stems from a 1950s presidential decree to protect the island’s architecture and features (Credit: Freeartist/Getty Images)
I also spoke with my hotel manager, Rebecca Eptakiri, who has lived in Hydra for 38 years. “My husband is a carpenter,” she told me. “One night a few years ago he accidentally cut off his finger at work.” helicopter could not be flown from Athens. So Eptakiri’s husband had to wait for a sea taxi to the nearest point on the mainland, which would take her 30 minutes, before taking another 1.5-hour taxi ride to the capital.
Living in a place where cars are prohibited brings inconvenience to everyday life, not just in emergencies. Edwards pointed out that bringing household waste to the few collection points that can be reached by the town’s garbage trucks is a headache. It’s troublesome to deliver things, and the cost of transporting building materials is prohibitive. Eptakiri, on the other hand, pointed out that frail people living in the upper floors of towns were often isolated. It is not easy to move even for wheelchair users.
Still, in the end, Edwards believes most Hydroots will stick to the status quo. “You just say to the locals: I’ll pick you up, I’ll take you to Spetses [a nearby island] Walking down the street or around a corner, being run over by pesky scooters, motorcycles, and quads, breathing in the gas-smelling air, unable to say, “Should I do that here?” ‘ And they say: ‘No, no, we don’t want that!'”
Wheelbarrows are another popular mode of transportation on the island (Credit: Molly Dailide)
The fact that there are no cars is, in many ways, a major driver of the island’s economy. Hydra is just a 90-minute boat ride from the bustling Athens metropolitan area, yet feels like another world. Tourists come just because it’s peaceful. According to Edwards, Hydra is much wealthier than the rest of the Saronic Islands to which it belongs. This is caused, at least in part, by the fact that outsiders like how quiet it is.
By never allowing motorized vehicles, Hydra has avoided many of the challenges faced by other smaller islands in the country. Founder of Kosmas Anagnostopoulos CIVINET, a sustainable transport network, has taught us about the many problems vehicles pose to small Greek islands. “There have been many serious accidents on the islands, especially on the highly touristy islands of Mykonos, Santorini, Paros and Naxos,” he said, mainly due to a lack of understanding of the local road network. Tourists are involved.
On the Greek islands it is also difficult to build parking lots to store all vehicles due to the ancient history of the country. Anagnostopoulos explained that parliament is struggling to build an underground car park because the potential for excavating archaeological remains is so high that it hinders further work.
While traveling to other islands it was noticeable how crowded they get – and I was traveling in the low season. , cars and scooters will push infrastructure to its limits, Anagnostopoulos said.
A visit to Hydra is like stepping back in time (Credit: Sky Armstrong/Getty Images)
Mimicking the Hydra and not using vehicles may not be a viable option for other islands of similar size. Nonetheless, Anagnostopoulos said some islands are being used as testbeds to find ways to reduce individuals’ reliance on cars.
Kos has invested heavily in bike lanes, he said. Aegina closed to cars from the port in the evening. In Tinos, the municipality is implementing a plan using battery-powered tuk-tuks. Some islands have partnerships with shipping companies. Volkswagen, for example, is carrying out plans to offer shared transport of electric cars and buses on Astypalea. That said, Kosmas pointed out that many islands simply lack the funds to implement bold transportation plans.
Early in my visit to Hydra, I headed west out of town along the cobbled “road” that hugs the shore. There was only the cry of the sea and the murmuring of the sea. With no cars in sight and very few signs of development, it was like stepping into another era and you could only get around on your feet.
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