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Traffic congestion clogged several major arteries in Istanbul during the morning hours on the first day of the new school year. Following the end of the summer holiday, the slowdown heavily affected the D-100 highway, the TEM Motorway, and key connecting roads on both the Anatolian and European sides of the city.
Intercontinental crossings saw severe delays, with traffic moving slowly from the Anatolian to the European side starting from Uzuncayir on the July 15 Martyrs Bridge and from Kozyatagi on the Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge. Intermittent congestion was also reported on the TEM Motorway heading in the Cakmak Bridge-Kadikoy direction.
On the D-100 highway, vehicles crawled through Bostanci, Kartal, and Pendik in the Ankara direction. Traffic was equally gridlocked in the Edirne direction, impacting Cevizli, Bostanci, Kozyatagi, Goztepe, Uzuncayir, and the Eurasia Tunnel approach.
Meanwhile, on the Anatolian Motorway, significant congestion built up in both directions from Sancaktepe to the Camlica tollbooths and Altunizade. Similar delays affected the coastal road between Kadikoy and Pendik (specifically from Kucukyali to Kadikoy) and along the Bosphorus line from Beykoz to Pasabahce.
On the European Side, vehicles were moving slowly on the D-100 highway in the Ankara direction in Avcilar, Yenibosna, Zeytinburnu, Cevizlibag, the Golden Horn Bridge, Caglayan, Mecidiyekoy and Zincirlikuyu.
Partial congestion was also observed on the TEM Motorway in the Ankara direction between the Bahcesehir-Mahmutbey tollbooths and the Kucukkoy-Hasdal area.
From the early morning hours, people wanting to get to work and school using public transportation caused crowding at the metro, metrobus, and bus stops where transfers take place.
According to data from the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality's (IBB) Pocket Traffic Map, traffic congestion across the city rose to as high as 53% in the early morning hours.
Traffic congestion was measured at 44% on the European Side and 60% on the Anatolian Side.
The Istanbul Governor's Office had decided to implement a special scheduling arrangement after assessing that around 19,000 school service vehicles, along with thousands of parents wanting to take their children to school in their own vehicles on the first day, would be out on the roads.
In order to prevent possible disruptions likely to occur in traffic, it had been decided that classes at public and private primary, middle, and high schools across the city would be held between 10:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. for that day.
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