All Public Transportation Will Return to Electric Buses in Samsun

Speaking at the Traffic Unit Chiefs Regional Evaluation Meeting held at Samsun Provincial Police Department, Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Mustafa Demir said, “We will convert our entire vehicle fleet in public transportation to electric buses. We will make the whole of Samsun accessible by bicycle.”

Traffic Unit Supervisors Regional Assessment Meeting was held in Samsun. Within the framework of the 2021-2030 Highway Traffic Safety Strategy Document and the 2021-2023 Highway Traffic Safety Action Plan, the Traffic Unit Chiefs Regional Assessment Meeting was held in order to evaluate the activities to be carried out in the provinces and the effectiveness in reaching the targets, to examine the traffic-related problems and to discuss the opinions and suggestions of the implementing personnel for solutions.

The meeting was attended by deputy provincial police chiefs responsible for traffic from 18 provinces, traffic inspection and regional traffic inspection branch directors, as well as Samsun Governor Assoc. Zülkif Dağlı, Metropolitan Mayor Mustafa Demir, Provincial Police Chief Ömer Urhal, Turkish Drivers and Automobile Association President Fevzi Apaydın also attended. Speaking at the meeting, Samsun Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Mustafa Demir touched upon the Transportation Master Plan, Electric Buses and Smart City Traffic Safety Project.

“WE PREPARED A VERY BEAUTIFUL TRANSPORTATION MASTER PLAN”

Making an assessment of the Smart City Traffic Safety Project, President Demir said, “Imagine now, exactly 110 intersections, 79 of which are adaptive. In other words, the intersection that sees each other and is in dialogue with each other. This project did not come to fruition so easily. We have prepared a very nice Transportation Master Plan for many institutions to approve this project. This Transportation Master Plan has everything about transportation. Parking problems, physical capabilities and inadequacies, public transportation, mobility between neighborhoods. In order to make this plan, we counted 11 months in Samsun. Now we have all the information. How many vehicles are passing which road and when? How many of them are commercial and how many are private vehicles? We know it all. We came up with a very good plan. In this context, we implemented the Intelligent Transportation Traffic Safety systems in a short period of 6 months.”

Stating that the Smart City Traffic Safety system is managed from the Alo 153 City Management Center, Samsun Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Mustafa Demir continued as follows:

“Which vehicle burns how much fuel, how many vehicles pass on which road. All records are available in the system. If there is a problem at our traffic lights, it immediately signals and offers us the opportunity to intervene immediately. It is also seen how much of a role artificial intelligence plays in the light durations there. These numbers are 100 percent complete counts. After we put that system into use, we do the counting, which we have done in 11 months, automatically with the system, without using any manpower. Crossroads see each other. He even makes an account there, saying, 'About how long will it take to come to me'. I would like to express that with the introduction of artificial intelligence and the power of the software, it has accelerated the traffic flow very seriously.”

ALL PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION WILL RETURN TO ELECTRIC BUS

Explaining that the Electric Buses have been put into service, Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Mustafa Demir said, “We have implemented this for the first time in Samsun with ASELSAN. It is the first in Turkey because it has a lithium battery. We got 20 of them. Negotiations continue for an additional 20. After that, after planning our financial structure at the first opportunity, we will transform all public transportation into electric buses. The operating cost is very low. It pays for itself in 4 years. Its efficiency is awesome. The most important feature is zero carbon emissions. Think about what an air transformation it would be if we turned our entire fleet into electric buses, expanded it to county vans, increased the use of scooters and bicycles. Within the framework of our Transportation Master Plan, we will make the whole of Samsun accessible by bicycle.”