04.11.2017

Transist 2017 International Istanbul Transport Congress and Exhibition was held for the 10th time at Istanbul Congress Center and Lütfi Kırdar Congress Building between 2nd – 4th of November, 2017.

The congress welcomed its visitors until Saturday, 4th of November. New products and technologies in the transport sector were introduced  with this year's theme "4İ: Innovation, Integration, Information, Intelligence". Moscow was the partner city of TRANSIST 2017, which was held in a 10.000 m2 area, had more than 100 exhibitors. The congress, which was started with the introduction speeches of Ahmet ARSLAN who is the Minister of Transport, Maritime Affairs and Communication, Mevlüt Uysal who is the Mayor of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IMM) and Bahri Şahin who is the Rector of Yıldız Technical University, brought together the leading professionals in transportation sector.

The theme of TRANSIST 2017, which held around a certain theme every year, was determined as "4İ". On the first day of the transportation congress, the main session titled "Drivers for Change - Future of Transportation: Open Innovation" focused on the effects of innovation on technology as well as on transportation which attracted a high attention under the theme of innovation. During the "Integration of Transportation Modes and Urban Mobility" session, which was held under the integration theme, different modes of intra-city transportation were discussed.

The Smart Mobility Conference was held for the second time this year under the theme of "Freedom of Bicycle". National and international best practises which take the bicycle, which is smart cities' environmentally friendly transportation mode, to the center of urban transport was discussed in sessions titled "Bicycle Road Infrastructure and Bicycle Sharing Model in Urban Transportation", "Clean, Silent, Effective and Free: Bicycle as an Urban Transport Mode", and "A Rolling Revolution: Cycling, Best Practices (City Examples)" .

Hackathon City Istanbul, which aims to design the future of transportation with the integration of safe, easy, sustainable and innovative technologies, was held for the first time this year in TRANSİST 2017. In Hackathon City Istanbul, solutions were seeked that could improve productivity. Future Public Transportation Practices, Sharing Economy, Secure Public Transportation, Smart Payment Systems, Pricing, Digital Travel and Mobility Experience in Istanbul were among the hackathon topics. Software developers and design professionals, as well as assertive students participated to Hackathon City Istanbul, which lasted for two days.
 
The second day of TRANSIST 2017 ended with an award ceremony where the winners of Public Transportation Excellence Index, Hackathlon City Istanbul and the owners of Public Transportation Encouragement Awards were rewarded. The ceremony started with two verses of poetry which was quoted from old divan literature by Professor Dr. Iskender Pala and continued with a visual feast of the ebru artist Garip Ay. Winners of Public Transportation Excellence Index were determined after seven main and 186 sub-criteria evaluations and the winners of Hackathon City Istanbul coded for two days during the congress.

The participants of the congress were informed by IMM's Deputy Traffic Manager and R4E (Roadmaps for Energy) Project Manager Esma Dilek, Ömer Faruk Altınmakas and Orhan Akıcı from IMM's R4E Project team. They provided detailed information about R4E Project to visitors, which aims to develop a new energy strategy and funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 Program. They also gave away introductory R4E Project catalogs to visitors and invited them to Final Conference to be held in Murcia on 7th of February next year. Smart Traffic Management and Smart Public Transportation Roadmaps, which were developed within the context of R4E Project in Smart Mobility focus area and in line with the vision and views of project partners and local stakeholders from eight different European cities, were introduced to congress participants. Smart Parking Systems, iTaksi and İBB Yol Gösteren mobile application projects, which are among the innovative projects of IMM Transportation Department were also presented to participants of the congress.

Academic and scientific studies, researches and innovative transport solutions were also shared for two days at TRANSİST 2017 International Istanbul Transportation Congress and Exhibition, as it was in the past years. Esma Dilek, who is Deputy Traffic Manager working for IMM’s Transportation Department, presented her paper titled "İBB Yol Gösteren ile Akıllı Hareketlilik". Mustafa Kemal Sürmeli, who works as a software engineer at IMM's Traffic Directorate, presented his paper titled "Coğrafi Konum Verilerinin Mevcut Yol Ağıyla Eşleştirilmesinde Grid Sistemi Algoritması”. Both papers were coauthored with engineers working for IMM's Traffic Directorate. Smart mobility applications, which take advantage of the technological developments in the field of transportation, were also shared with congress participants.

On the last day of the congress, panels titled with "Environment Friendly, Integrated and Safe Urban Mobility in MEWA Region" were organized. Problems encountered in the MEWA Region within the scope of Sustainable and Environment-Friendly Urban Mobility and solutions to mitigate the negative effects were discussed during the morning panel which was moderated by Yunus Emre Ayözen, who is IMM's Head of Transportation Department. The panels, in which Opportunities and Challenges, Road Safety, Best Practices and Projects in the MEWA region were discussed, and ended with the Committee Administrative Affairs session.