On Tuesday, March 3rd we attended a lecture by Tuna Kuyucu. His lecture, titled “Has Turkey Turned into a “Constructocracy?, presented three areas that have seen major changes in recent years causing Turkey, especially Istanbul, to become a site of mega projects. The three areas are the actors involved, financing mechanisms and the role of government. The actors have consolidated into real-estate investment trusts and large contractors that are making large investments in projects. The mortgage industry has grown and foreign buyers are increasing changing the financing of projects. Finally, the government passed measures to facilitate development in order to keep the economy afloat, create jobs and to maintain power. The result of these changes has lead to mega-projects, several of which are in the transportation sector: the new airport, the third highway ring and bridge, the Marmaray line, and even the coming metro expansions. These projects come from the central government and have not been included in Istanbul’s plan for itself. It is unclear whether the highway ring and bridge will solve problems or create more.
After the lecture, I asked Kuyucu about the current public transportation in Istanbul and what he sees for the future. He says the new airport will likely include a new BRT line or a rail line to connect it to the city and that the third bridge will include a train crossing in addition to cars. I asked specifically about the current BRT line that does connect the Asian and European sides. Kuyucu laughed and Abdullah joined him, calling the BRT a joke, something to experience at rush hour. He also called it (and other buses and so called “solutions” to the transportation problem) propaganda by the government and full of corruption. Way more money has been spent on the mega projects and consequently on cars as a means of transportation than on public transportation. Furthermore, he added that the BRT is insufficient and too slow with all its stops. He said there are many accidents with all the buses in the city and the hilly topography is not appropriate for buses and many break down. This begged the question, what is appropriate for the hills? Overall, the picture he painted of public transportation in Istanbul was a bleak one, and his answers implied that the answer to my research question is that the current public transportation is not effective in addressing the transportation problems of developing/expanding cities.
An example of a hill in Istanbul