Intra-Urban Turkish Transport

Moving from one place to another is a real experience in Turkey.  In Ankara, transportation is actually pretty efficient and not very expensive.  Below is a brief summary of my experience with the major transport modalities in Ankara:

           Arabalar (Automobile)

Turks are normally very kind and sweet people – that is, until they get behind the wheel of a car.  And then they become extremely aggressive and impatient.  Drivers pay no attention whatsoever to lines marking lanes (there could easily be 4 cars abreast in a 2 lane road).  Forget pedestrian crosswalks -- drivers don’t even see them.  Traffic lights are frequently ignored – actually they’re not totally ignored, as a driver might give a short beep to let you know he’s running through a red light.  Which brings me to another thing.  The average Turkish driver is much more expressive than the average American driver -- beeping his or her horn at least 20 times a day.  Hard to imagine that last September I had actually thought we might buy a car for our 9 months here!

           Dolmuşlar

I wrote in my early days about riding the dolmuş, and having been a dolmuş regular now for over 7 months, I have accumulated quite a few more dolmuş experiences.  As you may recall, a dolmuş is a mini-bus that you can flag down and get on or off anywhere along the route.  The dolmuş actually becomes its own little social community.  For example, people with infirmities are sometimes helped on and off  (I was even helped on during an ice storm!), I have held small children on my lap when there were not enough seats, men (and sometimes even younger women) will usually give up their seat for older people (including me!).  Having said that, accepting a seat can be socially delicate.  One day on a very crowded dolmuş when I was still standing, someone vacated her seat to get off.  Another woman and I were standing next to the seat, so I motioned to her to take the seat (I thought she looked old!), and she motioned to me to take it (I guess she thought I looked older!).  We motioned back and forth a few more times, and I eventually won (because she took the seat).

Taksi (Taxi)

Every neighborhood has a taxi stand, so no one is more than about 3 blocks away from a taxi.  In addition, every 50 meters or so there is a call button mounted on a tree or post, so all you have to do is push it and a taxi will show up shortly.  Typically when we have to take an early morning taxi (like 4am!), we go to our stand the day before to make arrangements.  Invariably, we are invited in for çay (tea) while I try to explain in Turkish what time we need to leave.  All the taxis are metered, so it’s a pretty honest system.

      Otobüs (Bus)

We actually have a bus stop right outside our apartment, so it’s extremely convenient to take this bus to Kızılay (our favorite shopping and movie area) on Saturdays.  We’ve bought cards, so we just get them punched each time we take a ride.  As with the dolmuş, men are expected to give up their seats for ladies.

      Metro

I have only ridden the metro once, so can’t speak with authority, but it was very efficient.  And, the very same pass you use on the bus works on the metro.  The only trouble is that the metro in Ankara doesn’t go very many places.

       Foot

People walk a lot in Turkey!  And given the state of sidewalks which are frequently torn up or in disrepair, they have to walk in the streets.  That means that there is a lot of competition between pedestrians and motorized vehicles.  Needless to say, motorized vehicles usually exert stronger influence, but it’s a healthy competition!

      Motorcycles

These are very rare.  The only motorcycles I’ve ever seen are driven by the food delivery men like MacDonalds (yes, they deliver in Turkey) and Wienerwald (they deliver roasted chickens). 

      Bicycles

There simply are none, or “yok” (as the Turks would say).  Clearly the pedestrians and the motorized vehicles have won out in Ankara, so there’s no space for bikes.