Istanbul transportation is highway based : Highways %91, Railways %6, Seaways %3. So, IETT is the largest local organization. IETT is a structure

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1 Istanbul, Turkey's largest city, bridges the continents and cultures of Europe and Asia. It has been a focal point of world history over the last two millennia. It served as the capital of the Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman Empires. The city is now a modern metropolis proud of its past, with a population of about 15 millions. Because of this population, the number of vehicles is dramatically increasing. Today the number of vehicles in Istanbul is 2.5 millions but after 10 years it is estimated that it will be 4 millions. Everyday, 1.7 million vehicles are in the traffic. In addition, everyday about 400 new vehicles join in the traffic. Therefore, we think that problems of Istanbul transportation can not be solved only by more and more vehicles. We have to take sea transportation into consideration seriously. Istanbul transportation has 2 local administrative organs; IETT and IDO ( IETT stands for Istanbul's highway transportation organization, IDO stands for Istanbul Fast Ferries Co. Inc.) and 2 central administrative organs ; TCDD and TDI (TCDD stands for Istanbul's railway organization, TDI stands for Istanbul's sea transportation organization). The characteristics of overwhelming Istanbul traffic are the increase in population and vehicle numbers, rapid and unplanned expansion, Bosphorus dividing the city into two, difficulty in changing the existing infrastructure, parking problems, coordination problems with authority, insufficient number of expert staff, insufficient employment and inspection, high cost of transportation and low mobility. The above organizations have to deal with all these problems.

Because of this population, the number of vehicles is dramatically increasing. Today the number of vehicles in Istanbul is 2.5 millions but after 10 years it is estimated that it will be 4 millions.

2 Istanbul transportation is highway based : Highways %91, Railways %6, Seaways %3. So, IETT is the largest local organization. IETT is a structure trying to carry people in a reliable way in Istanbul and it is not bound to the government. Moreover, the government does not help IETT financially. In addition to carrying people in reliable ways, their other duties are to make traffic jams less and carry people to their work and home comfortably and fast. IETT is trying to give life to their projects. One of these projects has been the subway between Taksim and 4.Levent which was finished in 2000.

Moreover, the government does not help IETT financially.

3 Subway between Taksim and 4.Levent This subway decreased the traffic of the main roads and started the first step of the underground railway. Authorities are planning to improve this project. They have been building the subway between Taksim and Kabataş. There is a tramcar between Taksim and Moda, which is 2.6 km long, This tramcar makes traffic much better. On the other hand, authorities are developing projects on highways. One of them is called the "E-Autobus". This bus has 70 comfortable armchairs and air-conditioner. There is a big difference between a normal bus and an "E-Autobus". In this bus, there can only be 7 people standing. With this project, IETT predicts that wealthy people will not use their cars, and this will make traffic better and everyone will go wherever they want safely and quickly. Another transportation type is seaways. IETT accepts that sea transportation is better than highways because seaway is faster, more ordered and it can carry more people than buses. For example one bus can carry maximum people, but a steamship can carry 3000 people and a fast ferry can carry 600 people at once. IETT authorities say that the best way to decrease the traffic problem is developing and improving sea transportation. IDO authorities accept the same thing. Their aim is to carry as many people as they can, to use little fuel oil and not to get involved in accidents. In Istanbul, sea transportation consists of 3% of the whole transportation, which is a pity. If we compare Istanbul to Lisbon and Singapore the difference is dramatic (As shown sea transportation ratio for three metropolis doc.). IDO covers 8% of sea transportation but they have the most comfortable and the fastest technology. From now on, after the merging of IDO and Maritime Lines ( which belong to TDI ), sea transportation will consist 71% of the whole sea transportation.

On the other hand, authorities are developing projects on highways. One of them is called the "E-Autobus". This bus has 70 comfortable armchairs and air-conditioner.

4 IDO is planning to solve the traffic problem in Istanbul by planning journeys every ten minutes( if they can certify their aim). Nowadays, because of the bad condition of the ships, people do not use steamships as much as they did in the past. IDO is aiming at improving the quality of the ships and service. IDO's most important problem is that they do not have dockyards to build ships. Because of this it is expensive when they have to buy ships from foreign countries or repair ships there. For this reason they started a new project. They will give special education to some ship engineers to fulfill the necessary requirement. We think the biggest disadvantage in IDO is insufficient advertisement.we think their advertisement policy is not so good because the popularity of IDO is very less. Besides this, their tickets are too expensive for Turkey because fast ferry fuel oil is too expensive. However, they are planning to decrease the ticket prices after the merging. We think the solution for traffic problems in Istanbul is sea transportation, because of the geographical location of Istanbul, being suitable for transportation in an estuary, and no need for road investment which is very expensive. Other solutions we can think of are: Railway systems must be increased, People should use collective transportation vehicles (bus, ferry, steamer, train, metro etc.), The merging must be finished soon, to start the use of one ticket for all transportation areas, Rapid and unplanned expansion must be banned, Automotive sector and petrol production policy encourage people to buy cars so it should be discouraged by the government, Government, Istanbul City Municipality and civil social

IDO's most important problem is that they do not have dockyards to build ships. Because of this it is expensive when they have to buy ships from foreign countries or repair ships there.

5 organizations should encourage people to use sea transportation, In schools, students must be educated about transportation in traffic lessons. We hope that one day Istanbul citizens will not waste time in traffic. Although it is not so easy in practice, everybody in charge must do their best to overcome this problem as soon as possible. WRITTEN BY Şahin Karakaş, Hasan Birol, Emre Keskin, Celal Aslan - SCHOOL Ozel Darussafaka Lisesi -COUNTRY Turkey

Although it is not so easy in practice, everybody in charge must do their best to overcome this problem as soon

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