The history of the highway transportation in Turkey and its environmental impacts in the light of scientific studies

Since its existence, human beings have been constantly moving in their living spaces to get from one place to another in order to meet their basic needs. In order to ensure this mobility in safety and comfort, they have used transportation systems with different operating principles depending on geographical conditions. Depending on the technology of the period, transportation was provided mainly by using road, railway, sea and airline systems. However, highway is the most widely used transportation system among them. While road transportation was initially carried out with non-motorized vehicles, today, with the development of technology, it is carried out with vehicles that have superior features and utilize engine power using different energy sources. From past to present, the energy source of the engine power that provides vehicle mobility has been fossil fuels. With the developing vehicle technology, transportation has begun to be done quickly, comfortably and safely, and not only human but also freight transportation has developed on a regional and global scale. In this way, with the interaction of beings with different cultures and characteristics, ecologically beneficial and/or harmful changes have occurred in socio-cultural, economic and biodiversity dimensions, which can be evaluated on an environmental basis on both a regional and global scale. In this thesis study, first of all, the development stages of road transportation (focused on our country, Turkey) were researched on a periodic basis and the emergence of social-cultural change was tried to be revealed. Afterwards, the environmental effects of road transportation were examined in the light of existing scientific studies in terms of social, economic, cultural and biodiversity dimensions. The aim of this thesis is to reveal the development of the road transportation system within the borders of our country, Turkey, from past to present, and to raise awareness among the relevant readers about the benefits and harms by evaluating its environmental effects, which can then be expanded on a global scale, in the context of social, economic, cultural and biodiversity. is to create. As a matter of fact, existing studies have evaluated that the development of road transportation, specifically in Turkey, has gone through a very difficult process, adding values to the environment in cultural, social and economic terms, but in the ecological context, it has caused significant and irreversible damage due to being a factor in global warming.