Hydra: Vehicles on the island – 'After the works they abandon them here'
10 comments
·May 22, 2025dmurray
Interesting that they're being described as "abandoned" there. I thought they might be getting sold to locals who have plausible deniability that they're using them for construction work.
Why abandon a working vehicle? Surely the construction projects on Hydra aren't exclusively worked by end-of-life vehicles. And it's only about 3km from mainland Greece so it can't be prohibitively expensive to ship them back (even if they are end of life, they should have much more scrappage value than the shipping cost).
thazework
Hydra is fairly unique in that bikes, not just motorized vehicles, are prohibited on the island.
dogma1138
Only donkeys, there are a few vehicles tho the garbage collection “truck” being one of them.
ndsipa_pomu
I wonder what their reasoning is behind banning non-powered bikes? It's got very steep hills, so there's a good chance that bicycles wouldn't be very practical, but seems strange to ban them.
polonbike
Bikes, even muscular ones, can be annoying to pedestrians on thin hiking paths. My take is that even if they allow one/a few/a capped number, then it's out of the bottle, and people will try to game the system one way or another
dogma1138
Narrow streets and very steep slopes there is absolutely no way to safely cycle anywhere there.
detourdog
Could be a speed limit thing.
ndsipa_pomu
I doubt that they have speed limits if they don't allow motorised vehicles.
bell-cot
> “A paradise for walkers and nature lovers.” That’s how the Municipality describes Hydra on its website, promoting the island’s uniqueness, where the movement of all wheeled vehicles is prohibited by law. However, laws are made to be broken—especially when there is no one responsible or interested in enforcing them. Thus, this otherwise beautiful island, rich in archaeological and natural treasures and boasting unique architecture, has become filled with cars, motorcycles, bicycles, and of course, scooters, which are trendier than walking.
Sounds like the usual "humans want pretended virtues, and laws are for the little people" deal to me.
One of my favorite things when I was here was seeing an Amazon Prime logo on the saddlebag of a donkey. That struck me as a very weird collision of old and new worlds