A group of businessmen who have formed the Nicosia-Cyprus Capital initiative have called for a rethink on the way traffic is allowed on the town’s once busy shopping street Makarios Avenue.
In a letter to Mayor Charalambos Prountzos, they called for traffic to be allowed back onto the whole street to increase the number of people visiting it.
“There is the possibility of taking measures in this direction without abandoning the basic goals and plans of the state,” they said after having discussed the issue with the Cyprus Association of Transport Engineers.
There are ways to make it easier for visitors to downtown Nicosia and Makarios Avenue itself to access car parks and the shops, they added.
They said since the area was changed to mostly pedestrian, visitation has dropped and the projected interest in the area has not been seen.
“Regulating traffic has not proved a panacea for the centre of our town,” they said.
To become an attractive destination Nicosia “should strengthen its image, emphasise entrepreneurship, green policies and cultural activity,” the businessmen said.
After its closure for many months, Makarios Avenue opened as a “shared space” for pedestrians and authorised vehicles in October 2022 in what the municipality hoped would lead to more environmentally friendly use of the road.
Earlier this year Transport Minister Alexis Vafeades said putting an end to the one-way system on Makarios Avenue “could put European Union funds at risk”.
He told the Cyprus Mail that the renovations carried out to the road were done so with EU funds on the condition of specific criteria being met, one of which was that the stretch of road between the old Debenhams building and the Landmark hotel be transformed into a one-way street, except for buses and bicycles.
