Scenes From An Istanbul Street
Istanbul is not a city designed for the automobile, to say the least. With its dense, old urban fabric and hilly geography, you could almost imagine the first settlers musing to themselves, “gee, this place is going to be a real scene after the invention of the combustion engine”. And what a scene it has become all these years later, like so many other massive urban beasts the world over, with millions of vehicles bursting the city’s seams.
Steep, narrow and winding roads become major thoroughfares with a predictable outcome- a performance of narrow misses, precarious turns, grinding brakes and puzzle-like gridlock. While attending an event with a rooftop terrace overlooking just such a street, I was treated to hours of vehicular contorsion.
5:35pm
When there is open road in Istanbul, only one option is available: go fast. Forget that there is most likely someone right around the corner.
5:55pm
Traffic starts to build up in both directions thanks to cars parked in a rather unfortunate place.
7:28pm
Things get dicey as cars coming in opposite directions start to block each other from turning. Cue blocked lanes up and down the road in both directions.
7:46pm
Lots of close calls and gear grinding gets the traffic flowing.
11:08pm
A big van gets involved and really starts causing trouble. At this point several people got out of their cars to direct traffic and walk further down the road to tell people to back up and make space.
11:14pm
The big van continues its attempts to escape this nefarious corner. Some people get out of their taxi for a breather while they wait.
Tags: Turkey Istanbul Traffic