Istanbul’s shared taxis fined 1 million liras for violating rules

ISTANBUL

Authorities in Istanbul handed a total of 1 million Turkish Liras ($135,000) in fines to the city’s shared taxis (minibus) for nearly 3,200 violations in 2020.

There are some 6,500 minibuses operating in the city’s public transport system, serving passengers in 172 routes with nearly 13,000 drivers. Of those vehicles, 6,318 have a vehicle tracking system and they are monitored live by local authorities.

Municipality police units of the city with a population of nearly 16 million conducted 44,350 inspections on minibuses last year and actions taken for a total of 3,159 violations.

The authorities intensified inspections particularly amid the COVID-19 outbreak and 115 virus rules-related violations were recorded between March and December 2020.

Minibus drivers violated traffic rules the most. They committed a total of 9,940 traffic rule violations, accounting for 76.4 percent of all violations.

People also widely reported to the authorities that drivers did not stop to pick up and drop off passengers. Authorities received a total of 961 such complaints last year.

The other most common reported violations and complaints were related to smoking on minibuses (867 cases) and poor physical conditions of the vehicles (309). Unspecified judicial cases ranked fourth among top violations. Officials also took actions against 144 assault and harassment and 12 fraud cases in 2020.