Building a cycling culture in Turkey

Through its suite of BikeLab projects, EMBARQ Turkey works to improve cycling infrastructure in six cities across Turkey: Istanbul, Antalya, Sakarya, Eskişehir, Konya, and Kayseri. With support from EMBARQ Turkey, the Municipality of Sakarya completed planning for over 30 miles of new bikeways and received US$2.4 million in funding from the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization (MEU) to support the project, covering 45 percent of the total cost. The city of Antalya, on the Mediterranean Sea, built 4 miles of new bikeways in 2013 alone. EMBARQ Turkey is also supporting Istanbul (current network length 22 miles), Konya (125 miles), and Kayseri (46.5 miles) in their plans to expand existing bicycle networks and improve safety for cyclists. These successes have also catalyzed increased investment in cycling infrastructure projects at both the local and national level. This work will culminate in the Safe Cycling Manual for Turkey, published with the support of the Turkish Ministry of Environment and Urbanization.