The main opposition-run İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality has decided to increase the number of taxis by 2,500 in order to tackle the longstanding difficulty of finding a ride in the country’s business hub, Deutsche Welle (DW) Turkish service reported on Thursday.
Drivers who cherry-pick routes, decline to pick up customers or charge tourists excessively have caused embarrassment for İstanbul in recent years, as the city, home to nearly 16 million people, seeks to capture a larger share of Turkey’s tourism sector.
According to a report by the Dünya newspaper, the municipality received around 72,000 complaints about taxis last year, while cab owners claim that fares are too low.
The decision to increase the number of taxis in İstanbul, which came following a meeting of the municipality’s Transportation Coordination Center (UKOME) on Thursday, aims to alleviate İstanbulites’ problems with taxis.
DW said that the newly designated vehicles will differ from the ones currently in use and will lack a rooftop indicator. They can only accept customers through a taxi-hailing application and cannot pick up random passengers. They also cannot accept cash; only credit cards or İstanbulkart are allowed.
İstanbulkart is a multifaceted digitalized card that is used for payment on urban transportation systems as well as in marketplaces, parking lots and social facilities.
“Congratulations on the addition of 2,500 new taxis to İstanbul [fleet]. … We would like to thank all the stakeholders in UKOME who supported our proposal after long efforts,” İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), tweeted on Thursday.
2500 yeni taksi İstanbul’a hayırlı olsun.
Uygulama Tabanlı Taksi Sistemi ile çağdaş, güvenli, erişilebilir, denetlenebilir, şeffaf ve teknolojik bir taksi sistemine geçiyoruz. Uzun çabalar sonucu UKOME'de bu teklifimize destek veren bütün bileşenlere teşekkürler.
— Ekrem İmamoğlu (@ekrem_imamoglu) August 29, 2024
Despite İstanbul’s population of 16 million, the number of taxis remained fixed at 17,000 for many years. The İBB recently converted some buses into taxis, increasing the total number of vehicles to 18,395.
According to data from the İBB, there is one taxi for every 861 people in the business hub, while this figure is 378 in Paris and 413 in London.