Impact of Adaptive Traffic Management System on Carbon Emissions: Istanbul Case

The biggest problems of today are the carbon emissions caused by the vehicles together with the time spent in traffic. This problem has come to the forefront in the last 10 years, especially in cities with high population density and high immigration rates due to industrial zones and high job opportunities. Istanbul is a metropolis with a registered population of 16 million and home to approximately 20% of Turkey’s total population. According to the March 2022 data of the Turkish Statistical Institute, the number of registered vehicles in Istanbul is 4,714,138. The increase in the number of vehicles in proportion to the high population caused an increase in the time spent in traffic and an increase for carbon emitted from the vehicles. In the report “Black Report 2021: Air Pollution and Health Effects” published by the Right to Clean Air Platform, it is stated that air pollution in Istanbul is at a sensitive level. The intersection of carbon emissions and traffic congestion is traffic signalization. The Adaptive Traffic Management System, which is the most advanced of the signalized intersection management systems, was developed by the engineers within the R&D Center of Istanbul IT and Smart City Technologies INC (ISBAK INC), an affiliated company of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, and started to be implemented in the field in 2012 under the brand name ATAK. By using the Genetic Algorithm and Fuzzy Logic methods, the system that automatically determines the signal times at the intersections ensures that the waiting times are minimized and the congestion occurring in the intersection area is prevented.