A Study on The Effect of Transportation Systems to The Evolution of The City Image – The Case of Istanbul

Transportation is one of the most significant dynamics that effect the urban sprawl and the image of Istanbul. From a perspective that focuses on the transformation of transportation phenomenon in Istanbul, it is possible to interpret the formal change and sprawl of the city. In this regard, the urban sprawl of the city which was parallel to the seashore first, expanded through the railway and highway axises. Later on, with the rapid, illegal and unplanned urban sprawl process, the city started to grow disorderly and has lost its identity as a seashore settlement and started to grew in fringes. So that the city had an organic character in the shape of an “oil stain” as Mübeccel Kıray stated.1
Having analyzed the thresholds/breaking points in terms of the transformation in Istanbul the first part of the inquiry will aim at describing the variations of different transportation systems in time that the people of Istanbul use in their daily lifes. In this manner, how the transformation systems effect, feed and support each other in a city that enables an extensive range of transportation alternatives will be investigated. The transformation/transition of the city image will also be discussed in the context of the evolution of the transportation systems.
The methodology of the paper is visualising/mapping the transportation system network which is one of the most major triggers of the transformation of Istanbul. Using these maps, the paper also intends to make synchronous/asynchronous readings about the economical and political breaking points that effect the transportation decisions which transform the morphology of Istanbul.