Sustainable Transportation

Growing world population and rapid urbanization have increased the demand for mobility. The need for development of transportation technologies and infrastructural systems aimed at satisfying this increased demand is now non-negligible. As the number of private cars has increased after Industrial Revolution in spite of the unsufficient infrastructural capacity, the traffic problems are being confronted nowadays. As a solution to these problems, new roads are being built based on the “predict and provide” method which is part of today’s traditional approach to transportation. However, it was found that new roads revive the stagnant demand, which even further complicate the traffic problem. In this context, it is believed that any solution focusing only on increasing the capacity and mobility in order to address the transportation problems will not be neither economical nor permanent. With this understanding in mind, traditional transportation approaches are replaced with sustainable transportation approaches with a trend initiated especially by the developed countries. The purpose of the sustainable transportation approach is to make investments into systems which place importance on accessibility; develop healthy, safe, equalitarian, comfortable and environmentally-friendly vehicle and infrastructure technologies; integrate transportation modes; which properly manage infrastructural capacity, passenger demands and operational supply; and relocate freight transportation to logistics centers. This study presents the historical development of sustainable transportation approaches and explores its principles in terms of environment, society and economy with award-winning exemplary projects, and offers recommendations for solutions to current problems of transportation in Turkey.