Public transport improvement and new public transport management approaches are accepted as the most effective tools in order to cope with the urban transportation problem threatening sustainable urban life and efficient functioning of urban areas. The need for new solutions to replace, or support, costly new capacities created two new concepts at the two ends of the transportation phenomenon / Travel Demand Management (TDM) on the demand side and Transportation System Management (TSM) at the supply side. The main aim of this thesis is to show whether such public transport improvement policies and measures can make a difference in urban transport and traffic, and contribute to the attainment of a more sustainable transport system. In particular, it is intended to assess the role of fare and pricing policies together with modal reorganization strategies in improving public transport, and increasing its ridership.

This thesis focuses on the underground transportation forms that began to emerge in city centers in the second half of the 20th century. Besides providing an illustration and evaluation of the selected case projects, the notions of speed and time are opened for discussion as significant concepts that interact to affect the physical formations both of cities and transport policies. The developments in urban transport technologies after the 1960s are also examined as leading factors in the development of today&rsquo / s multimodal and multilayered urban transportation hubs.

This thesis analyzes the car ownership and use issues worldwide and in Ankara. There has been an extremely rapid increase in car traffic in major cities, leading to car dependence and its adverse affects, all over the world. This thesis takes its starting point the driving forces behind car ownership and use, and the increasing problems caused by the car traffic in urban centers. Then, car travel reduction measures and their consequences are reviewed by examples. The urban transportation in Ankara is analyzed, both in terms of recent policies and the data obtained, in order to find out if the car ownership and use would generate similar problems in Ankara. The applicability of car travel reduction options in Ankara and the conflicts in the recent urban transportation policies are discussed. This research does not recommend simple solutions, but concludes that a broad spectrum of measures must be applied in order to reduce the problems.

This study investigates the relevance of dynamic traffic assignment models under uncertainty. In the last years researchers have dealt with advanced traffic control systems since road provision is not regarded as a proper solution to relieve congestion. Dynamic assignment which is an essential component of investment planning is regarded as a new research area in the field of urban transportation. In this study the performance of dynamic traffic assignment method, which incorporates time dependent flow, is compared with that of static model. Research outcomes showed that dynamic assignment method provides more reliable outcomes in predicting traffic flow / therefore its solution algorithm is integrated to conventional four staged model. Literature survey showed that researches have hot provided an appropriate framework for transforming networks. This study investigates travel demand variations in a dynamic city and discuses possible strategies to respond dynamic and uncertain properties of individuals&rsquo / travel behavior. Research findings showed that both external and internal uncertainties have significant influences on reliability of the model. Recommended procedure aims reducing uncertainty in order to improve reliability of model. Finally, the relevancy of the problem and the applicability of recently developed methods are discussed in Ankara case.

In Turkey, the only city that currently operates BRT is Istanbul. There are researches that focus on different BRT systems in the world, yet there has not been a comprehensive, systematic and comparative evaluation of the BRT experience in Istanbul. There seems to be an urgent need to study this BRT investment, with a particular focus on planning, operation and ridership characteristics with a comparative approach. This thesis analyses the BRT corridor in Istanbul and answers the question whether Metrob&uuml / s in Istanbul is a success or not. In order to understand the criteria for defining success, planning, operation and ridership characteristics are identified based on the previous literature and particularly the analysis of three best practice cases that currently operate BRT / these are Curitiba, Bogota and Mexico City. The study sets the criteria in planning, operation and ridership of BRT systems drawn by previous studies and answers by people who were involved in these projects. It compares the best practice cases and the Istanbul Metrob&uuml / s / focusing on planning and operation characteristics and using primary indicators of performance and ridership. The study reveals strength and weaknesses of the Istanbul Metrob&uuml / s in comparison to best practice BRT cases in the world. The findings provide lessons both for the future extensions of the BRT in Istanbul and for other cities that may consider implementing this transit technology.

With this dissertation, it is intended to improve our understanding of the effects of urban rail systems on the mobility of women, their accessibility and their extent of experiencing the city they live in, that is their urban geography. The main aim is to understand whether women who live nearby an urban rail system and who use this system have higher levels of mobility and wider urban geography when compared with those who live in places without an urban rail access and those who do not use urban rail systems. In search for the effects of metro usage on mobility, as well as the factors affecting metro usage, the study is built on four main fields in transportation studies: mode choice theory, activity based travel theory, time-geography theory and women studies. Women living on Ankara metro line and in Ke&ccedil / i&ouml / ren constitute the main case study in this thesis. With the help of a comprehensive questionnaire, applied on captive public transport women riders, it is assessed whether the Ankara metro has positive effects on the mobility of women living nearby the metro stations, whether women who use the metro have higher mobility and wider urban geography, and whether the metro can be effective in enhancing the mobility and urban geography of women who are identified as particularly vulnerable in the literature. Understanding the factors, in cases where expected positive impacts on mobility have not been realized, is also important to contribute to the theoretical discussions that the study is built on.

This thesis explores the ways in which the concept of &ldquo / city junction&rdquo / has been considered as an element of the urban image within the network of circulation. The aim of this study is to make an historical analysis of urban transformation in In&ouml / n&uuml / Square at Ankara, instigated by the respect to recent traffic problem-centered nodal interventions in the area. Akay Junction, which is thought as 1930&rsquo / s representative space also having historical power as well as being a node where two significant axis intersect, is studied in its social, cultural and political context, through written and visual historical sources, with its relevant physical spatial components and relations to space and its nearby environment. Presenting the interactions within the historical process and considering the traffic based physical transformation, the role of the concept of city junction in the formation of urban public space in terms of architecture is questioned. Based on the material research the thesis presents the existing and the possible alternative models together with a proposal, regarding the further possible transformations especially with the extension planned for the underground rail transport to the area. The alternatives indicate the qualitatively different results that will be got with respect to providing a viable urban public space as such a node.