The Evaluation of the Impacts on Traffic of the Countermeasures on Pandemic in Istanbul

Governments have taken various countermeasures to slow down the effect of the Covid-19 virus, which has affected the whole world since the beginning of 2020. This study aims to evaluate the impacts of the countermeasures taken by the government on travel behavior in Istanbul, Turkey, through a large-scale survey (approx. 150.000 respondents), remote traffic microwave sensor (RTMS) and transit system electronic toll collection (ECT) data. The countermeasures have been taken by the governments were all day on weekends and between 9 pm and 5 am on weekdays, closure of the restaurants, cafes except take away, stepwise working hour measure and determination of the working hour between 10 am and 4 pm. The survey was developed to allow electronic surveys to be designed on a word processor, sent to, and conducted on standard entry level mobile phones. As a result of the survey, it is estimated that there is a 9% increase in the use of private vehicles, and the road traffic congestion is expected to be increased accordingly. Despite the stepwise working hour measure of the government, the morning and evening peak hours of the traffic did not change. Also, the number of vehicles before and during the pandemic passing through the Bosporus via two bridges which connect the two continents and are the main transportation corridor of Istanbul, is analyzed. According to the November, 2020 data, the number of the vehicles has decreased by almost 14% on weekdays in comparison with the data of November, 2019 for both bridges.