مرکز منطقه ای اطلاع رساني علوم و فناوري - Relationship between Urban Transportation Systems and Social Activities: Spatial Case Study of Avcılar District, Istanbul

Abstract :

Public transportation is one of the important components of the urban life in 21st century, as an indicator of developing modern societies and economical improvements. Istanbul is one of the biggest metropolitan areas of the world with its 13,6 million populations. Especially after 1950s, migration from almost every other part of the country caused many insufficient urban infrastructure and transportation. Besides those, its urban pattern is getting more complex in time and there are a lot of challenge about urban mobility, transportation facilities, accessibility and attendance of social activities. Mainly, intensive motor vehicle usage is caused traffic congestion and it is also caused to lack of mobility of people in the city. Therefore, the phenomenon of “social exclusion” is emerged by deficiency of transportation system.In this paper, the effect of transportation based difficulties on social exclusion was studied via conducting survey questionnaire for people who lived in the district of Avcılar on the European side of Istanbul, Turkey. People were asked about their regular social, cultural, sportive and voluntary activities in their leisure time and if they limited these activities due to transportation based difficulties such as high travel (out-of-pocket) cost, long access, travel and transfer times, low safety and comfort, before (2005) and after (2009) metrobus start to operate on Avcılar - Sogütlüçeşme (Kadıköy) line. People included in the study were between 20 and 45 years old, worker and middle-income class, living approximately 27 km away from the city center of Istanbul in Merkez, Ambarlı andDenizköşkler neighborhoods.