For my 5th passion Blog, I will talk about the notorious traffic of Istanbul.

In the most populated city of Turkey – Istanbul-, traffic is a very common occurrence. Istanbul’s many roads are plagued by traffic congestion. From the narrow roads to the popular highways, traffic can be seen everywhere. It has come to a point where Istanbul is known for its traffic in Turkey, it is an iconic part of it.  Every day, millions of residents and visitors find themselves in congestion, having to navigate through impatient and angry drivers that are constantly honking. In fact, according to a study conducted by Yeditepe university, those living in Istanbul spend more than 3 years of their lives in traffic.

Why is this happening?  The traffic in Istanbul is due to several reasons. The main reason is the city’s infrastructure being unable to keep up with the growing number of people moving in the city. Each year, hundreds of thousands of people move into Istanbul for employment opportunities, increasing the number of cars on the road even more. In addition, a lot of drivers are impatient and sometimes do not follow the rules and regulations of the road, which can lead to car crashes that block the roads. Moreover, the lack of proper city planning is yet another factor that leads to more traffic. There are many slums in Istanbul with badly built and unplanned roads next to them that fail to be properly integrated to the main network of roads. Hence, there are numerous factors that make Istanbul’s traffic so intense and annoying.

How do we fix this problem? It is clear that the traffic of Istanbul is a massive issue since it wastes the time of everyone. It is also very harmful for emergency services such as police or ambulances as well. because of this, finding proper solutions is crucial. Firstly, better city planning is absolutely necessary. To meet the growing population, better and more effective roads must be built. Moreover, better education for drivers is also necessary, their arrogance can lead to further traffic so making them better drivers by increasing the requirements to get a driver’s licence would be very beneficial. In addition, although this would be an indirect solution, investing in other cities in Turkey and creating more job opportunities there would be a significant help. This way, less people would move to Istanbul and possibly more people would move out of Istanbul which means less cars on the road.