Nihat Alkaş, General Manager of EGO, attended the 5th Urban Research Congress and gave information about the new projects in Ankara regarding sustainable transportation that will be implemented in the upcoming period. Stating that citizens will start to see electric bicycles and environmentally friendly buses in the congress, which was held by video conferencing method due to the pandemic process, Alkaş said, “As EGO General Directorate, we dream of a sustainable city and we invite the whole city to be a part of this dream”.
Nihat Alkaş, General Manager of Ankara Metropolitan Municipality EGO, said the "5th edition" with the theme of "Urbanization and Quality of Life". He participated in the "Urban Studies Congress".
Informing the participants about the projects carried out by the General Directorate of EGO on sustainable transportation in Ankara, Alkaş explained the effects of the Covid-19 epidemic process on public transportation and said, "As EGO General Directorate, we dream of a sustainable city and we invite the whole city to be a partner in this dream." .
THE ERA OF ELECTRIC BICYCLE AND ENVIRONMENTAL BUS WILL BEGIN IN THE BAŞKENT
Stating that there is an 19 percent decrease in the number of passengers using public transportation in Ankara in Covid-86 restrictions, Nihat Alkaş shared the following information about new projects:
“We thought it was high time to turn this process into an advantage and we took action. In our optimization project, we started to change our transportation system to use our bus fleet more efficiently, environmentally and economically. In our 'SMART Ankara' project, we started the preparation of the 'Sustainable Transport Master Plan' (SUMP) in order to make Ankara's 20-year transportation sustainable and we have come to the tender stage. In our 'European Union Urban Mobility' project, we will ensure the infrastructure, planning and establishment of charging stations in the city for electric bicycles and electric scooters. With our new bus, 282, we will make Ankara transportation even more comfortable. We are trying to bring the emissions of our fleet as close to zero as possible with the environmentally friendly buses we will purchase. With our 'Park and Continue' project, we plan to prevent 6 thousand vehicles from entering the city center daily by providing free parking lots for vehicle owners if they use public transportation. In our 'Bicycle Roads' project, we are building the city bicycle path network and making safe roads where people can now cycle to their jobs and schools. We are close to the end of our 'Bicycle Sharing System' project, we created the sharing model, you will soon be able to see and use electric bicycles on the streets of Ankara.
ALKAŞ: "WE MUST TAKE THE HUMAN TO OUR CENTER IN TRANSPORTATION"
EGO General Manager Nihat Alkaş, who started his presentation by mentioning the role of transportation in people and urban development, said, “We need to make our cities, avenues and streets suitable for citizens between the ages of 7-70, safe and livable by creating maximum protected areas for pedestrians and bicycles”.
Stating that 1 person loses an extra 53 hours in traffic a year in Ankara, Alkaş continued his words as follows:
“Ankara is the 979th city with the highest traffic among the 174 cities surveyed. 34% of the air pollution in Ankara is caused by vehicles… I am saying this because we are aware of our problems. More than half of the world's population lives in cities and this proportion is gradually increasing. We know that we have limited space in city centers and we see that our cities are designed for a car-oriented lifestyle. This is not sustainable. That's why we have to get the people to our center, we have to change what is at the center. Now, we need to put our cities among the cities focused on people and life in addition to public transportation. "
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