Smart Cities in Turkey: Approaches, Advances and Applications with Greater Consideration for Future Urban Transport Development

Abstract

The smart city transport concept is viewed as a future vision aiming to undertake investigations on the urban planning process and to construct policy-pathways for achieving future targets. Therefore, this paper sets out three visions for the year 2035 which bring about a radical change in the level of green transport systems (often called walking, cycling, and public transport) in Turkish urban areas. A participatory visioning technique was structured according to a three-stage technique: (i) Extensive online comprehensive survey, in which potential transport measures were researched for their relevance in promoting smart transport systems in future Turkish urban areas; (ii) semi-structured interviews, where transport strategy suggestions were developed in the context of the possible imaginary urban areas and their associated contextual description of the imaginary urban areas for each vision; (iii) participatory workshops, where an innovative method was developed to explore various creative future choices and alternatives. Overall, this paper indicates that the content of the future smart transport visions was reasonable, but such visions need a considerable degree of consensus and radical approaches for tackling them. The findings offer invaluable insights to researchers inquiring about the smart transport field, and policy-makers considering applying those into practice in their local urban areas.

Approaches, Advances, and Applications in the Sustainable Development of Smart Cities: A Commentary from the Guest Editors

“…In addition to the above, several studies also highlight the importance of smart homes and buildings [25][26][27], smart transportation [28][29][30][31], smart energy and resource management [32,33], and smart media displays [34], which may boost the interaction between cities and their residents, and therefore, leads cities to become smarter and more sustainable. Findings of these studies are further supported by numerous other studies [35] suggesting that the implementation of various smart systems would foster the environmental, economic, and social development of smart cities. Indeed, as highlighted by Komeily and Srinivasan [36], having a balance among environmental, economic, and social aspects of sustainable urban development is particularly important for smart cities considering the concept of smart cities lies beyond simply taking advantage of various modern technologies for better convenience.…”

“…demonstrates the processes used to transform the economic vulnerability of a tourist city, Florianópolis, the capital city of the Brazilian state of Santa Catarina, into a more sustainable economy through knowledge and innovation. Bıyık [35], in his work entitled 'Smart Cities in Turkey: Approaches, Advances and Applications with Greater Consideration for Future Urban Transport Development' describes the processes used to make a radical change in transport policy for the development of a smart transport vision for Turkey. De Jong et al [53] present the processes used to introduce and operationalise sustainable branding of three middle-eastern cities in their article 'City Branding, Sustainable Urban Development and the Rentier State.…”

Global Shift: Mapping Different Approaches

“…This struggle happens amidst high demand increase for private-sector transport services, constrained capacity of riders to compensate for services, quick expansion at the urban fringe, and great motorization rates regularly involving second-hand cars imported from foreign countries. Bıyık [3] highlighted that Turkish transportation policies do not usually address the needs of the population growth, although the political agenda of all Turkish cities are highly related to urban transport issues.…”

“…Many national and local governments and various civil society organizations around the developed countries successfully build up transport visions to achieve their sustainable action plans [1][2]. However, there is only a limited understanding of future change in relation to journeys where walking, cycling and public transport could provide a viable travel mode choice to private cars [3][4][5][6].…”

Analyzing the Impact of Different Transport Governance Strategies on Climate Change

“…Green transport involves walking, cycling, regular public transit, and travel by rail [65]. Green transport vehicles include a range of vehicles with low emissions, including dual-energy vehicles, natural gas vehicles, electric vehicles, and hydrogen and solar vehicles.…”