One common problem for everyone living in Istanbul or visiting Türkiye’s most crowded city, which has a population of over 15 million people, is traffic. The city took a collective sigh of relief during the coronavirus pandemic when there were fewer vehicles on the roads. But two years on, Istanbul fares even worse in terms of traffic levels.
For some reason, the traffic worsened in recent weeks, particularly during rush hours, when traffic levels escalated to a frustrating 70% in the evenings. This is long after the thousands of school buses end their daily shift.
Professor Mustafa Ilıcalı, a traffic expert, says it is partially related to the swelling number of motor vehicles while environment expert professor Mustafa Öztürk points to the danger to air quality. “You spend half or more fuel if you drive slowly, like, 10 kilometers per hour. This means more air pollution,” he warns.
An annual report by an automotive navigation system producer puts the Turkish city at the top of its ranking of dozens of cities with the worst traffic congestion. The report compiled by TomTom for 2021 says that traffic levels are gradually returning to pre-pandemic levels, with countries lifting restrictions after a drop in the number of cases. Another report published in 2020 by researchers from Istanbul's Yeditepe University found that residents of the metropolis lost 70 minutes a day due to the city's high traffic density. The report, which monitored traffic data along 5,000 kilometers (3,107 miles) of roadway in Istanbul for a year, found that it could take 50 minutes to travel a distance that normally would take only 15 minutes.
Professor Selahattin İncecik, head of the International Union of Air Pollution Prevention Associations (IUAPPA), says the pollution from traffic particularly affects certain districts of Istanbul, citing “high particle pollution in Bağcılar and nearby districts,” suburbs where thousands commute to every day on the European side. On the Asian side, the Maltepe and Kartal districts are at pollution risk. Traffic is among the basic causes of pollution in the world and some 7 million people in the world face the risk of premature death due to pollution according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Official figures by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) show that, as of August, Istanbul has more than 4.5 million vehicles but experts say this number grows every day.
Professor Ilıcalı, who serves as head of the Transportation Center at Istanbul Ticaret University, told Demirören News Agency (DHA) in a recent interview that the number of motor vehicles in Istanbul corresponds to “one fifth of the vehicles in all of Türkiye.” “Traffic causes a great deal of loss of time and more fuel consumption. So, this is not about only a simple traffic jam,” he says. Ilıcalı says Istanbul traffic used to have “peak hours” in the past, “between 8 a.m. and 11 a.m. in the morning and 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. in the evening. Now, every hour is like peak hour. People have to drive slower. We need urgent measures,” he says. One such measure, according to Ilıcalı, is two-lane roads, with one lane exclusively allocated for mass transportation vehicles, from buses and minibuses to taxis.
Ilıcalı also highlights the need to diversify means of transportation, particularly maritime transportation. “We need new measures where maritime transportation has a greater share in mass transportation and is integrated with other means of transportation. We need metro lines with more passenger capacity,” he says. “Another important measure is gradual working hours. People commute at the same time. If we cannot change this, traffic will get worse,” he warned.
İncecik warns of the dangers of pollution from traffic and recommends people, particularly those waiting at bus stops, wear protective masks. “People have to inhale emissions from buses whenever a bus departs. Vehicular emissions are back to pre-pandemic levels,” he told DHA.
He said the pollution affects some districts more than others, adding that districts near Bosporus are under less risk due to the “natural ventilation” the windy areas provide.
Professor Öztürk says pollution from transportation and traffic was around 40% in 2019 and it has risen to 45% nowadays. “Istanbul has a higher risk of pollution from traffic than other cities. So, we have to promote mass transportation more. The investments should be accelerated,” he said. Öztürk also warned motorists to keep their vehicles properly ventilated. “When you are stuck in traffic, you should not expose yourself to emissions all the time and make sure the air inside the vehicle is properly circulated.”
