Athens traffic woes grow as cabbies walk off the job

Athens taxi drivers joined a nationwide cabbies' strike on Tuesday morning and will be off the clock for 48 hours and possibly longer if a contentious tax reform bill delays being voted in Parliament until Thursday.

The taxi strike in Athens, which comes after drivers in other parts of the country began a four-day walk-off on Monday, is expected to put a strain on public transport and increase the turnout of cars on the city's streets, making life even harder for commuters and residents in the Greek capital during a week of successive traffic nightmares.

Official restrictions on traffic in downtown Athens begin on Wednesday during marches commemorating the 2008 killing of 15-year-old Alexis Grigoropoulos by an off-duty police officer in the central district of Exarchia.

On Thursday, the Greek police is mounting a major security operation that includes street...