A new study using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to analyse accidents and traffic congestion has found that Istanbul recorded more than 97,000 accidents on its streets and roads last year, and that drivers in Istanbul lost around 105 hours in traffic jams.
According to the Turkish news agency Anatolia, the study was prepared as a doctoral thesis by Professor Hüseyin Korkmaz, a member of the Faculty of Transport and Logistics at Istanbul University. It states that between 2013 and 2021, there were 147,626 accidentes in the Turkish city; most of the accidents in these years were concentrated in the last few years – between 2018 and 2021 – and occurred mainly in the Zeytinburnu district, on the European coast of the Turkish metropolis.
The study indicates that in 2024 there were a total of 97,354 accidents in Istanbul, which generated 105 hours of traffic jams in the city. Accidents in Istanbul occur mainly on Fridays – when traffic in the city is heaviest – and the main vehicles involved are cars, followed by motorcycles and trucks. The hours when most accidents occur are between 5:00 and 8:30 in the morning and between 18:00 and 21:00 in the evening, especially on routes such as the D-100 motorway, the trans-European TEM motorway and coastal roads.
According to Korkmaz’s thesis, simply closing one lane to traffic after a traffic accident adds at least 10 minutes to the journey time; minor accidents can cause 20 to 30 minutes of congestion, but major collisions involving two vehicles – the most common type – can cause delays of up to an hour and a half.
The solution to traffic in Istanbul: close access to the city centre?
On possible solutions to traffic in Istanbul, Korkmaz warned that traffic congestion in the city will not improve unless measures are taken such as limiting the arrival of new residents to Istanbul and creating more job opportunities spread across other regions of the country, something difficult to achieve – even partially – without drastic structural changes that would take 10 to 20 years to implement. ‘Building wider roads only provides temporary relief to traffic; after a few years, those roads also become congested,’ he said.
Regarding the plans announced by the Istanbul Metropolitan Council to establish a payment system for vehicles wishing to enter central areas such as Kadıköy or Eminönü, the expert stressed that ‘We will see if this can be implemented in the future, but to implement these measures, you need to increase the number of public transport vehicles. If you don’t allow people to enter Eminönü with their cars, these people will come by public transport.’
Traffic congestion is one of the most serious problems facing Istanbul for years, mainly due to the continuous growth of the city, which, with 16 million inhabitants, is the most populous in Europe. A study published earlier this year ranked Istanbul first in the world ranking for traffic jams, ahead of major cities such as New York, Chicago, Mexico City and London.
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Edited and reviewed by:
Pablo Gómez is a specialist in Turkey and has been editor-in-chief of Hispanatolia since 2011. He has been analysing current affairs and geopolitics in Turkey and the surrounding region since 2006.
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