Since March, when the effects of the coronavirus epidemic began to appear in İzmir, the public transportation boarding figures, which declined to an average of 300 thousand per day, started to climb with the "new normal" starting on 1 June. As of the week of June 29-July 3, the number of boarding passes to all public transportation vehicles reached the limit of 1 million weeks later.
The total number of boarding passes, which reached an average of 1 million 800 thousand weekdays before the coronavirus period in İzmir, started to decrease starting from mid-March. By the end of March, the total number of daily boarding passes to all public transportation vehicles in the city fell by almost 85 percent to 300 thousand. On the weekends, this figure fell below 200 thousand.
Turkey the number of people using public transport on weekdays starting to fall along with the number of cases began to increase in general since the middle of May. As of June 1, when the government relatively relaxed the coronavirus measures under the name of "new normal" and opened cafes, restaurants, shopping malls, the rate of public transportation has started to increase rapidly.
On June 1, the number of boarding to all public transportation vehicles in the city reached 548 thousand, while the number reached 709 thousand by the end of the week. In the week of 8-14 June, 800 thousand boarding figures were exceeded. In the following weeks, the rate of use of public transportation by Izmir increased day by day, and lastly, the number of boarding passes to all public transportation vehicles reached to the limit of 29 million after weeks.
Eser Atak, Assistant General Secretary in charge of the Izmir Metropolitan Municipality Transportation Department, stated that public transportation vehicles have been disinfected meticulously and regularly from the very beginning; He emphasized that the same diligence continues. Atak also stated that the number of coronavirus cases is almost negligible among the public transportation workers with the positive effect of the compliance of the citizens with masks and social distance rules. According to the Izmir Transportation Center (İZUM) data of the Izmir Metropolitan Municipality, Atak noted that the people of Izmir still prefer their private vehicle in transportation, and completed their words as follows:
“This has doubled urban traffic and travel times. Although we are in the summer, we are experiencing the intensity of the winter months. This means trouble for anyone living in the city. In addition to traffic accidents, air and noise pollution, our public transportation vehicles continue clean and regularly in line with the decisions of the Ministry of Health and the recommendations of the Presidency Science Board. Our nurses can comfortably use all our public transportation vehicles by respecting the mask and social distance rules. ”
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