Examamining effects of bridges over the Bosphorus Strait on the city

EXAMINING EFFECTS OF BRIDGES OVER THE BOSPORUS STRAIT ON THECITYDemet ERDEMTransportation, M.S. ThesisThe Bosporus Strait is natural water way dividing the city into the East and West sides.Constructing a bridge between the two sides had been a major issue throughout the history. Inorder to satisfy transportation demand between the East and West sides, to maintaindevelopment along an east-west axis, and to de-centralize the city historically single-centeredon the West side, the Bosporus Bridge was put in service in 1973 followed by Fatih SultanMehmet Bridge in 1988 together with the peripheral ways for extraordinarily emergedtransportation demand. However, it is known from experience that the above mentioned goalshave not unfortunately been reached. We studied the effects of the bridges on the city in termsof population, economic developments, and highway-seaway transportation by using sometime-series data groups. Specifically, we tried to determine the variations in city?s population,county populations, production of motor vehicles, GNP of İstanbul, annual number ofpassengers and vehicles transported by ferries, annual number of motor vehicles registered inİstanbul, and annual number of vehicles passing through the bridges. The bridges wereintended to maintain a demographic balance between the sides; however, transportationdemands between the sides have reached to a point, which is more problematic. The citydeveloped toward the North and for satisfying the needs of the continuously growingpopulation, service areas have been expanded, resulting in decrease in recreational areas. Weacknowledge that the highway bridges connecting the Asian and European Sides of İstanbulhave provided some local and regional benefits, such as social, economic and cultural;however, we cannot undervalue the damages, which the bridges put on the city itself.Keywords: Istanbul, Bosporus Bridge, Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge, Transportation planning,Land-use, Ferry transport, Impact analysis.